I Guess it All Worked out in the End
by AwayLemonade
Summary: The young woman looked as if she was about to commit suicide, by jumping into the infamous bone eater’s well.
1. Leaving Home

**WARNING**: This is the disclaimer for the rest of the story, I don't want to keep re-typing this.

**I do not own any of the characters from InuYasha or Naruto. I do however own the plot, it is my own idea and I take pride in saying that I did write this fan fiction. **

'Thoughts'

"Speaking"

-Flash Back-

* * *

Pages: 5 

Story Word Count: 2, 159

* * *

Chapter One- Leaving Home

* * *

'I guess it all worked out in the end.' Looking into the seemingly bottomless pit, a sigh escaped pale pink lips. Closing warm, almost inviting chocolaty brown eyes the young woman looked as if she was about to commit suicide, by jumping into the infamous bone eater's well.

"Kags, why do you do this every month?" A boy that looked about 10 or 12 said quietly under his breath hiding in the nearby foliage. "Don't we have a better life here? You are a hero; we live in the Lord of the West's castle, he even trains us!-"

"Souta you know I can hear you right?" Kagome asked, informing her younger brother, who wasn't really careful, stepping on small twigs and rustling dried leaves.

Hearing her voice Souta jumped, he honestly never expected her to hear what he had to say. Kagome turned her head to look at her brother then at her feet, which dangled into the well. She knew there was nothing to go back to in Tokyo. All there would be were boring and dull noisy humans that were killing themselves by polluting and with their greed. Souta was right; the better life was here, their home, in the Feudal Era.

Even though Kagome's true friends were now supposedly in a better place, it seemed that they would always be in her heart. Where ever she went, there were memories of Shippo, Sango, Kirara and Miroku, but it haunted her. At times it seemed that memories of the 'impossible' to defeat Naraku lurked around every dark alley. After every encounter it always seemed like there was more training that had to take place.

-Flash Back-

Blood was seeping out of a wound of a young fox kit. Ripped green and white shreds from a school uniform were being pressed against the hole, soaking up the red substance rapidly. Tears blinded the young woman holding the cloth, he couldn't die. No he wouldn't she… she could save him! She could save Shippo all she had to do was concentrate. Removing the blood soaked wad of cloth she didn't see that blood had already started to dribble down out of the mouth of the small form. Placing a shaky hand over the wound an extremely weak pinkish light started to emit from the girl's hand. Eyes closed in concentration. She could save Shippo she could save the young boy she saw as her son. She could even see him now, except…… he was with ……. two other foxes that were roughly the same size and color. They were cradling the small fox demon, it could have been her imagination but she was sure she saw them turn and nod at her, before all three of them disappeared into a white light.

"Lady Kagome. I think he has already passed, I don't think there is anything you can do right now." A man dressed in black and purple robes said solemnly placing his hands together in silent prayer for his young friend.

"Mirkou I think Kagome needs sometime alone with Shippo."

"That would probably be the best idea right now Sango." The monk said his staff jingling as he walked away.

"If only InuYasha had been here! Not trying to find a rotten corpse, maybe Shippo could still be alive." Sango said while tears had started to slide down her face. Giving one last look to Kagome, Sango picked up Kirara and left with Miroku.

Kagome starred into the lifeless indigo eyes that once held so much joy and mirth. Hugging the Shippo to her chest tears started to flow out of her eyes. She hadn't been strong enough to save him; she wasn't even strong enough to heal him. She was always dragging the group down, always relying on others. A small funeral was held for Shippo, Most of the village children who had played hide and go seek and tag with him attended. Kaede and Miroku preformed the ceremony and he was buried next to one of the trees near the well were he'd wait for Kagome to return from the future.

That's when Kagome also started to learn hand-to-hand combat from Sango and easily learned how to infuse and write those nifty ofuda's that Miroku always had handy. It seemed as Sango continued training her the more she was able to predict what moves Sango was going to make when they where sparing. The battles were getting more and more interesting to Kagome, but Sango started yielding earlier and earlier on into the battles.

"Kagome…I think...you're, better at this…than I am now." Sango panted out her hands on her knees. Sweat was dripping from her forehead and Sango was sure there'd be bruises on both of them.

Kagome smiled at Sango and was going to reply when she felt someone familiar running towards them at a remarkable fast speed. Kagome looked at Sango who seemed to be unaware of the demon approaching. "Sango, someone's coming this way!"

"Hu-" Sango suddenly felt the hair's at the back of her neck stand up signaling a demon was nearby.

"InuYasha's wrench have you seen my ward." A pale golden eyed full dog demon said an angry undertone of venom under his breath.

Kagome looked at the dog demon, "I am not, your half brother's wrench, I have a name it's Ka-go-me! Why are you even looking for Rin?"

"Do not question this Sesshomaru," Sesshomaru turned around then decided to answer. "Rin heard that she missed your runt's funeral so she wanted to come and visit his grave."

"Lord Sesshomaru may I ask, why are you looking for Rin then?" Sango asked listening in.

"You may ask Taija. Jaken had been bringing her to visit the grave when he was sliced in half. I revived the toad with Tenseiga and he didn't know what happened to Rin or where she went. The faint scent of my brother and the dead Priestess was lingering around that area then it was gone." Sesshomaru stated walking away.

"Sesshomaru do you want us to help you find Rin? It's easier to search for someone with more people." Kagome said she didn't want another innocent child to also have to be buried.

"This Sesshomaru does not need assistance. Do what you want." He said before disappearing in a gust of wind.

-End of Flashback-

Kagome let a small smile linger on her lips. It turned out that that was the way Sesshomaru asked for 'assistance' as he called it. Away that's basically how and why 'The great and feared almighty dog demon Lord of the west, Sesshomaru' agreed to train her, because, he owed her a favor after she willingly helped him, also that was the reason she was able to get the rest of her soul back.

"Kagome lets go back to the castle," Souta said grinning at Kagome. Seeing her nod and jumped off of the rim of the well and onto the solid ground. Souta knew she was dwelling in the past. "I'll race you! Last one there is the rotten egg!" Souta took off running trying to show that the training was paying off and that he was getting faster.

Kagome looked at her brother's blurring form. It was a wonder how Souta made it through the well. When he did though, he was crying and hiccupping to the point of hyperventilation. In between sobs he would say 'Kun-Loon and Jii-chan screaming', 'no more', 'Why?!' and 'It's not fair!' After a week or so, Souta told the entire story.

Basically some drug dealers heard that Jii-chan had herbs and powders of sorts and they wanted them. Jii-chan however wouldn't sell his authentic herbs to druggies. Kun-Loon heard some strange noise outside and told Souta to hide in the well house. Jii-chan called the police. The gang broke in, mutilated any living thing and took anything they thought was valuable. Souta who was hiding in the well house could hear their screams. When he heard some footsteps outside his hiding place, he shut his eyes and took his chance and jumped into the well hoping that it would hide him. He ended up in the Feudal Era however and when he climbed out he saw someone that resembled his sister although this person strongly radiated with wisdom and calming vibes. Then Souta realized that that person was really his big sister, and cried angry tears because she hadn't been there to save Jii-Chan or Kun-Loon.

"A year is going past in a month over there.…" Kagome said referring to Tokyo "So that means... technically four have already gone by here." Musing to herself she jumped into a nearby tree and tracked down her brother. Finding him just about to pass the stream, this marked the half way point. Jumping from branch to branch she decided to speed it up a little. Pushing off from the last branch she stepped on she could no longer be seen to the human eye. Sitting down on a tree branch near the gate of the Western Lord she waited, and nineteen minutes later her brother appeared out of the forest breathing heavily and grinning like a fool.

"I beat her this time! I BEAT KA-" Souta was forced to stop yelling as a purple striped hand grabbed his shoulder causing him to drop into a fighting position that was drilled into his head.

"Refrain from yelling on this Sesshomaru's land, boy." A slightly amused Sesshomaru said retracted his clawed hand back.

Kagome slide down from the branches and ruffled her brother's hair. "Wow Souta you are getting fast, maybe next time you won't start without me so it will be fair."

"Fine, fine but next time for sure, will determine who the best is!"

"LADY KAGOME, LADY LORD SESSHOMARU, SOUTA YOU MUST COME QUICKLY, SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THE BONE EATER'S WELL, NO ONE KNOWS WHAT TO DO AND THEY DON'T KNOW… Don't know what's going on! There are bright lights and the ground is shaking. Please Lady Kagome, Lord Sesshomaru do something!"

Sesshomaru turned to look towards the young woman who had gained his respect. Long ago when he began to train her she had informed him that this would happen. Midoriko had foretold that the event would take place. Picking up Souta he and Kagome took off towards the well at a rapid place that left Souta feeling like he was going to through up his lunch, in fact he felt really lightheaded. Then he slumped down signaling that he had passed out as they landed near the well.

"I'll miss you. I can't thank you enough for what you've done. There are so many things I want to tell you but now I can't. You don't know how much you mean to us, you are like that over protective big brother I never got." Kagome wouldn't cry she wouldn't allow herself. Minding the sharp metal spikes on his armor she hugged him tightly, when she pulled back she felt something bulky being shoved into one of her pockets but she was distracted by Sesshomaru's rare and priceless smile that had formed on his lips.

"You are needed elsewhere now. I intended to give these to you on that strange Chrisy-master day, you've been celebrating for the past three yares, as you call it." Pulling out two boxes from his shirt he handed them to Kagome whose tears threatened to spill over the edge.

Kagome nodded and smiled. "Your present is under Souta's bed," Looking at Souta Kagome picked up her little brother. "You know he always thought of you as a father figure and there you will alw -"

Her speech was cut short as she was pushed into the well. Sesshomaru was never the one for theatrics, it was bothersome. He would never admit this to anyone but himself, however he would miss them both. Placing his mask of stone back into place he watched Kagome falling backwards, slipped the gifts into her fighting Kimono's inner pocket and watched her until she was absorbed into the red light. Then he took off towards his lands leaving the destroyed well behind him.

Floating around in the red substance Kagome shook her head. That was something only Sesshomaru would have done when he knew that they would probably never see one another again. It was actually strange how everything took place, in reality Kagome should have been at least nineteen, excluding the time she spent living and training with Sesshomaru in his special study with actually blocked out all time. However due to the Lord of the North attacking Sesshomaru's castle some rooms was destroyed that included the study which reacted with the Lord of the North causing him to be forever frozen in time. So…it was most likely that this was also the production of that room exploding because Kagome and Souta were still suspended in the magic red transportation goop.


	2. In a Well

Small note-This chapter is dedicated those six people who reviewed Leaving Home. S. T. Nickolian, madmiko, Kagome Lady of Darkness, naru-chan13, preistessofsorrow and Shi No Kami07. Thanks for reviewing first chapter you guys are awesome.

* * *

Pages: 5 

Story Word Count: 2,007

* * *

Chapter Two- In a Well

* * *

"AARRRGGGG!" 

Kagome shot up into a sitting position only to smack heads with Souta. Souta who had been the one, who screamed, clutched his head in pain. "Kags where are we?" She let go of her own head and felt around with her hands. Which came into contact with a dirt floor and stones that encased them both, in the small area…..The last thing she remembered was Sesshomaru pushing her into the well. Eyes adjusting to the dark Kagome stood up, feeling Souta brush up against her she assumed that he had stood up also.

"I think we're in a boarded off well." Kagome concluded, seeing a small beam of light entering from a cracked wooden board at the top.

"Oh that's just great. So how are we going to get out of it…….in fact why are we even in here in the first place?!" Souta asked confused, he couldn't really remember anything.

"Through.…the..… well …ugh, no not that one…in the.. grrr… feudal era…... Sesshomaru pushed us…into it," Kagome said climbing up the jagged rocks. "Souta …wait in here I'll through down, a ladder or something."

"Fine," Souta agreed rolling his eyes. "But what happens if you fall? Won't I be crushed by you? It's not like- hey! That piece of wood almost hit me! There's not a lot of room down here if you hadn't noticed Kagome."

Kagome pulled herself through the gap and took in her surroundings. It seemed like they were in an abandoned town. Something felt really off though, of course. It was those three people who were hiding in the trees, watching her. 'Could they be after the Shikon?' Kagome asked herself glancing at the well her brother was currently stuck in.

Two of them had started moving …towards her, the other one was probably going to 'finish her off' once the others had 'weakened' her. Kagome turned serious and got down into her unique fighting position and dodged a couple of odd looking knives that were thrown at her. Rolling to the side she pulled one out of the ground, It was all child's play to Kagome. Leaning on her elbows to one side she quickly whipped out her right leg and kicked the extremely large man on the side of his head. Causing his head to twist and popped with a sickening crack. The dead body, then went flying into the air and smacked into the other guy who had been hiding in the trees. The strange metal plate with a note, went airborne and conveniently fell straight into the well.

"HEY WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" Souta yelled picking up the strange piece of material with metal attached that had walloped him on the head.

Flipping into a standing position she threw the strange knife at the other man who had been starring where his partner had been previously standing, in horror. The knife thing lodged into his skull, with deadly and accurate precision.

They were oddly dressed bandits. Or whatever they were. Metal plates on their foreheads and such, spotting a rope attached to the one that she had just killed Kagome took it before she placed her hand on his chest and purified the body, so her brother wouldn't have to see it. Slinging the rope over her shoulder she stepped over the clothing and threw the rope down to her brother. She could still sense the other guy but he was probably stuck under his dead friend.

"So what was all THAT commotion about?" Souta asked breaking another wooden board so he could climb over the edge. "Are they after the Shikon? But how would they know about it? Sesshomaru can't even sense it! You know, since the jewel covered itself with that clear plasticy liquid, which made it seem powerless and … for some reason, then shattered, and then was absorbed by your skin, which kinda makes you seem normal now. Since your power is unknowingly and MAYBE even unwillingly being masked, by the jewel. Perhaps you secretly want people to know you are the, oh so powerful, Priestess Kagome! I'm almost positi-"

Kagome covered her brother's mouth to silence him. "You promised not to talk about that anymore."

"Wah," Pulling his sister's hand off his mouth he breathed in some fresh air. "Sorry…I kind of got carried away again and forgot. Hey! Wait, where are you going?"

"Souta I want you to stay right here, okay?"

"Huh? Alright sure sis." Souta shrugged to himself as Kagome picked up a black metal knife of some sort and casually started making her way to a tree covered area. He decided to poke around in the odd belt that was lying on the ground.

"Who are you and why did you attack me?" Kagome asked starring at the guy who looked like at any moment he was going to shit in his pants.

"Uh… m-my comrades killed some of my, other comrades earlier and thought… they uhh… thought that since you were weak and defenseless they would have some … some fun with you. Since our leader was killed by the Konohana brats, they… they told me that we were the only ninja's from Sound Country left! So I couldn't leave, otherwise they would kill me." The nervous looking man informed, another weird metal note thing tied to his arm.

"You are a ninja? Were those other men ninjas as well?" Kagome asked the man didn't appear to be lying, but she didn't want to trust his every word.

'Damn this bitch is annoying! If only Chiron hadn't landed on top of me I could have gotten away!' Putting on his best act he cleared his throat. "Yeah…so you must be pretty strong, to defeat my comrades, they were high level Chuunins you know."

"What's a Chuunin?"

"You don't know… what a Chuunin is?" 'Maybe this can work to my advantage then.'

"No. What's a Chuunin and how come you wear those metal things on your head?" Kagome questioned watching the man slightly squirm underneath his dead friend. He was planning something and whatever it was it probably wasn't good.

"A Chuunin is the rank above being a Genin…The metal plate, is a forehead protector. Every ninja village has their own," Trying to be nonchalant he wriggled a bit more under the body and sighed. "How come you don't remember any of this you went to an academy didn't you?" Suddenly his felt his blood run cold. 'Maybe this girl is a missing nin… with the way she fought making the body hit hi- but she would've still known all of this. It's common sense.'

"No." Kagome replied before turning around.

"Hey are you going to help me? I-I helped you!" The man said hiding his repulsive grin.

"I don't think so," Kagome said making her way back to her brother, if it weren't for the fact that he gave off a traitorous vibe. She would have whole heartedly helped him out. "Souta what are you wearing?"

"This belt had lots of neat-o stuff in it, it was just lying there. It's not like I stole it or anything!" Souta stated adjusting one of the pouches on his leg and a round brown leathery one that clipped into his back pocket. Dangling the forehead protector from his right hand he held it up. "What is this anyway? It fell on me."

"That is a forehead protector." Kagome answered she could feel more people approaching. Maybe they were backups for that 'ninja.'

"Why would you need to protect your forehead?" Souta asked aloud while observing the metal closely and peering at the black metal knife thing Kagome held in her hand. Shrugging to himself he continued to observe the metal headband which had caught his interest.

"Hey girlie, do you remember me?" It was the man she had left back in the forest, "Yeah well I was all broke up that you didn't stay and help me to I sliced Chiron, who landed on top of me, in half. Ya see I wanted to see if you were truly strong and all, but since you left me to live you're just a regular weak human being. I am stronger than those other ninja's because I'm their leader."

In the corner of Kagome's eye she saw Souta slowly get into his familiar fighting position. "So why didn't you kill me after you found out that I was 'just a regular weak human being' then?" She questioned she didn't want to kill the guy in front of her brother, but what had to be done, had to be done.

"You ask too many stupid questions." The guy replied but in reality he had just been too stupid to have thought of that plan in the first place.

He pushed off the ground and decided that he would kill the brat first. Since the brat seemed to have more power than the girl. The girl…he would have a little fun with before he killed her. Creating his hand seals he duplicated himself until there were about thirty of him.

Souta spun around and kicked his opponent in the abdomen causing the clone to disappear in a puff of smoke. Spinning around he punched another clone in the face. 'Damn which one's the real one?' Souta was punched in the chest by a couple of the clones, but he wasn't going to die from it. That's when he noticed a couple of clones taking out their weirdly shaped knifes.

Kagome searched the crowd of people, easily finding the aura that belonged to her brother. She knew that he could defend himself. Locating the man's aura Kagome found him sitting in a tree…he was disgusting, not fighting his own battles. Charging the weapon she held in her hand, she whipped it at the crowd avoiding he brother of course. Souta had pulled out some flat spiky discs and started throwing them into the men. However they just kept popping. Then suddenly about fourteen clones remained. Throwing more spiky discs another nine vanished.

'How did that bitch do that?' Angrily he took the Fuuma Shuriken that had been strapped to his back and flung it a Kagome forgetting about having a little fun with her.

Kagome's eyes widened slightly it was spinning and turning around at the same time. Erecting a clear barrier she knew that it would protect her it purified anything on contact. However it consumed quite a bit of energy and needed a lot of concentration and control, if you didn't have any of those it would most likely break and cut all her major internal organs. In fact what organ wasn't major and wasn't internal? The Fuuma Shuriken probably had all sorts of terrible ailments she could contract from a single cut. Scolding herself she concentrated more on her barrier. Then she felt the other's from earlier before, she could fight them off………..if she didn't have to hold her barrier up for too long. She could almost feel the energy being slowly drained away, almost like a tap that continually dripped.

"RASENGAN!"

It turned out she didn't need the barrier after all. The Fuuma Shuriken lay in tiny fragments of harmless metal on the ground. Kagome saw the three others. A girl with pink hair was helping her brother, another guy with silver hair was standing on a tree branch probably making sure everything was going okay and a raven haired boy was attacking the ugly dude. Turning her attention back to the blue eyed blonde that wore an orange jumpsuit she gave him a big smile. It was false but none the less it was a smile and she was showing her appreciation.

"Did you see that Sasuke-teme?! Did you see? I got to save the pretty girl from being sliced into pieces and you didn't!" The blonde yelled happily, sticking his tongue out, at the back of his rival. Who was currently fighting with the sound ninja, whom had thrown the weapon. That Naruto had just blasted to smithereens.

* * *


	3. Strangers

Pages: 7

Story Word Count: 2, 671

* * *

Chapter three- Strangers

* * *

"Be quite, Dobe." Sasuke replied curtly, before pulling his Kunai out of the dead body. Making the corpse emit a sickening squelch. 

"Hey there, are you okay? I'm Sakura from team seven. You're really lucky Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun came in time." The green eyed pink hair girl said smiling at the young boy who had a couple of cuts on his cheeks, arms and legs. Ignoring Naruto's 'What about me?!? I'm here too, Sakura-chan!'

Souta looked at the strangers. They all had metal thingies on their foreheads too, except the pink haired girl, her's was on her head. Souta shrugged, it probably didn't matter if they had come or not. Kagome would have been able to save him otherwise. Not that, he had needing any saving or help, in the first place. He could have defeated the rest of those wimpy clones by himself. "I'm Souta. Why _did _you come?"

"We came, because we were assigned to look for the remaining fifteen sound ninja's. Apparently some of them must have killed each other because we found thirteen of them already dead on the way here," Sakura answered looking at the other girl that was seemed the same age as her, then to the empty pile of clothes on the ground making her suspicious. "So where do you guys come from then?"

"We use to live in Tokyo Japan." Kagome answered not wanting Souta to answer because more likely then not he would probably get himself killed by angering the wrong people one day.

"To-tokit-oyo Japan?" Naruto asked stumbling over the pronunciation.

"So why did you come to Sound Country alone?" Kakashi asked behind his perverted book. They obviously weren't strong enough and the boy was probably still a Genin. Perhaps the girl was the mother of the young boy and was trying to protect him from that ninja.

'S'not like we woke up one morning and decided. Hey! Let's go fall in a well and somehow end up in Sound Country!' Souta exclaimed to himself. Feeling the urge to roll his eyes.

"I've been traveling around. My brother decided to join me since our home held to many bad memories to live all alone in anymore." It was the truth not the whole truth, but they didn't know that.

"So your parents are?" Sakura asked turning towards the boy again.

"Dead." Souta replied helpfully, it hurt a little on the inside but he knew that they were now both watching over him together, with smiling faces.

"Oh..I'-"

"It's okay." Souta didn't want to hear what the pink haired girl had to say. They didn't need to be pitied…most of all HE didn't need nor want to be pitied. Only weaklings were pitied and he wasn't a weakling anymore.

"Oi Kakashi-sensei does this mean our mission is over now?" Naruto asked looking toward his perverted sensei that was blushing and giggling. "There were only fourteen ninjas though. Most of them were already dead! Sasuke-teme was the oooonnnnnlllllyyyy one who got to fight a bad guy! Ara? Why is there a pile of clothes and a headband that belong to a sound nin?"

"That? It was already there, before I got attacked." Souta answered shrugging.

Kakashi went to investigate. The clothes were way too big for the boy and too wide for the petite girl. "This doesn't belong to either of them."

"The size doesn't match up." Sasuke stated the obvious leaning against a tree.

"Hah! Well I already knew that. I was just, just uhh you know...ummm... testing you! YOU FAILED YOU'RE SO STUPID SASUKE!" Naurto yelled laughing rather obnoxiously.

"Shut up Naruto! My Sasuke-kun is definitely NOT stupid!" Sakura yelled towering over Naruto with flames coming out from behind her.

'…That girl has some serious issues.' Souta and Kagome thought at the same time watching her pummel the blond kid.

"Uhhh…aren't you hurting him?" Kagome asked worried for the fox-boy…. 'Fox boy?!' Letting her powers lick the side of the boy's body she found out that he did indeed have a demonic energy flowing around inside of him. However it seemed kind of iffy to her. It wasn't, he was a fox demon like Shippo. It was more like, there was a fox, inside…...of him. Anways it wasn't good to meddle with other people's lives. Looking toward, Sakura she noted that the green eyed girl had stopped, beating up Naruto.

"Who? Naruto? Hah no, who cares about him? He's fine," Sakura said ignoring Naruto who was on the ground with punch dents with steam coming out from his body. "Oh I'm Sakura by the way!" Sakura said forgetting all about Naruto and introducing herself to the girl who had the prettiest fighting Kimono she had ever seen.

"I'm Kagome and thank you for saving us." Kagome said with a small bow.

"Are any of you hurt? I have some special ointment, I made myself, we can put it on those cuts Souta." Sakura said going to dig in her backpack for the ointment and her first aid kit.

"Nah, Kags can heal them up for me," Souta said looking up to his sister. "Right?"

'Gah, Souta why don't you remember anything that Sesshomaru taught you about survival?! 1) Never revel any more personal information then you have to, 2) Don't attack without a good reason 3) Don't show how powerful you are, 4) Conserve your energy and 5) Always have more than one plan.' Kagome sighed motioning her brother to give her one of his hands before his cuts got infected.

"Wow, wow wow! Soooo are you like a medic nin?" Naruto asked in amazement…but nothing appeared to be happening.

Sasuke, Kakashi and Sakura also watched closely. You can't heal someone just like that, unless you were a medic nin. But for his kind of cuts you would only need to put on some ointment, they weren't life threatening or anything.

A soft warm pink glow was emitted from Kagome's left hand. Grabbing onto Souta's slightly smaller hand all the cuts started to 'magically' stitch right back up with no scab or anything. For an inexperienced Miko you would have to find each and every single little individual cut and heal them one by one, individually. The healing energy died down once Kagome had stopped its flow out of her hand. She then let go of Souta's hand. "Ta-da!" It still amazed the village children. Heck, it even bamboozled some of the parents of the children.

"Wha-How… How did you do that?!" Sakura asked astonished. Sasuke and Kakashi were even amazed even though they didn't show it.

"Duh!" Naruto said looking at his teammates like they were idiots. "This girl…THIS GIRL, IS ……………………………….AN ALIEN!"

Everyone turned to face Naurto with a what-the-fuck look on their face. "It's true! She must have eaten the other Sound ninja! That's why he's GONE!" Naurto was now screaming with his hands on his face and running around. "Kakashi-sensei you have to do something! That girl is going to eat us alive! LOOK SHE'S EVEN ATTACKED MY BELOVED SAKURA-CHAN! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-  
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-  
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Actually Sakura had fallen over when she had heard Naruto's stupid response. She thought maybe Naruto had figured out how the girl did it, but just like him he gave what Sasuke liked to call, a dead-last answer. "SHUT UP!" Sakura punched Naruto will all her might causing him to do a couple of twists and turns in the air before falling down and rolling around in the dirt a bit before he hit a tree before he stopped.

"Che. Dobe." Sasuke said added his two cents in.

"Uh…" Kagome blinked looking towards the mass of orange whose body was contorted as he lay on the ground once more.

'I think Tsunade-sama would want to meet this Kagome-girl. She's not dangerous, she doesn't have any high power levels yet she can heal others on command.' Kakashi said to himself sliding his book into his pocket before making his way over to Kagome.

"EH? Kakashi-sensei stop right there!" He stopped in mid-step on his subordinate's requesting looking towards the rather unstable pink haired girl.

"Don't do anything perverted to Kagome. I'll kick your butt if you do!" Sakura said threatening her perverted teacher, knowing that he might attempt to do something.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and turned back towards Kagome who looked at him suspiciously. Kagome felt something strange radiating underneath the headband that the silver haired man was wearing. Shrugging it off for now she caught the end of his last sentence.

"Since you have no where to go you can- Come with us to Konoha."

"Why should we? For all we know you can be a kidnapper." Souta stated pointing his finger threateningly at the masked man.

"It's only a two days away," Sakura said smiling thinking that Souta was just worried about the journey. "Plus Sasuke-kun, Kakashi-sensei, Naruto and I will project you guys."

"I don't need protection," Souta said puffing his chest out in pride. "I can protect myself right Kags?"

Kagome ruffled her brother's hair. "To some extent Souta, you still have a lot of training to go through. Before I can say truthfully say, that you can fully protect yourself."

"The sun is setting. We can still cover some ground before setting up camp." Sasuke stated pushing of the tree.

"Okay Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said skipping to catch up to her beloved Sasuke. Kakashi threw Naruto over his shoulder and pulled out his book, walking behind his students.

"Hey Kagome, Souta are you guys coming?!" Sakura asked before screaming her head off. "SASUKE-KUN WHAT'S THAT?"

"Che," Sasuke looked over to see a bloody mess of organs and chunks of skin. "It was one of the fifteen remaining Sound Nin."

"Souta lets follow these people maybe we can find out more about this dimension we're in." Kagome said turning away from the sight of Sakura who was now puking in the nearby bushes, to look at her brother.

"Alright, that sounds like a good idea!" Souta said and began marching towards the others.

"You fought well today Squirt. Next time, just make sure you remember Sesshomaru's survival rules." Kagome said walking beside her brother while keeping alert for any suspicious auras.

The group traveled about one kilometer and a half before they decided it was time to set up camp. Sakura talked to Kagome until Naruto woke up halfway there. Naruto had been getting on her nerves so she went back to having a one-sided conversation with her Sasuke-kun. Naruto then decided, after talking animatedly to Kagome, she wasn't an alien after all. In fact she was super nice plus there was something about her that made him feel at ease.

"Okay I'll go get the firewood." Sakura volunteered leaving her backpack at the makeshift campsite going to get some wood.

"I'll get the water." Naruto stated taking the canteens to fill them up. However there was three too many for him.

"I'll help Naruto get the water." Souta volunteered with a laugh, picking up the one's Naruto couldn't and walking behind the whiskered face boy.

"I guess I'll go and get something for our group to eat then won't I?" Kakashi said before darting off into the woods to look for a deer or a couple of rabbits to satisfy everyone's hunger.

"Che, Tent." Sasuke said before starting to set the tent up, the tent that only Sakura used. The reasons why? Sasuke wanted to be ready if anyone was going to attack, Kakashi didn't to accidentally kill one of his students in his sleep and Naruto plainly wasn't allowed to sleep in the tent because it belonged to Sakura.

Kagome had finished making the outline the spot in the middle of the camp where the fire would go with stones. Walking over to Sasuke who was fumbling to keep the last two sticks together and successfully tie it. Grabbing the sticks before they both fell, Kagome held them together so Sasuke could tie them up.

"I don't need your help." Sasuke said blandly while starring at the two feminine hands that were holding the sticks together.

"I never said you did." Kagome said picking up last stick while Sasuke finished knotting the last two.

At last the tent had been set up in complete and utter silence. Sitting down on a fallen log and leaning against the tree behind her, Kagome couldn't help but let out a yawn. Then she moved her head to the left dodging the thing that came whizzing towards her. Sasuke drew his Kunai once he heard the familiar twang of another Kunai embedding into a tree. His onyx eyes darted around looking for where the Kunai was. He found the tagalong girl that Naruto had saved leaning towards the left with her eyes closed. Narrowing his eyes he found the Kunai lodged into the tree, only moments ago she had been resting against. "H-" Sasuke began observing the girl again. There was nothing that radiated that she was a ninja yet she dodged the weapon.

"What are these things?" Kagome asked pulling the 'four sided knife' as she liked to call it, out of the tree.

"Kunai." Sasuke replied putting his back into his hostler.

"Kunai…" Kagome repeated dragging her finger over the smooth surface. Spinning it around on her finger she wondered who would be throwing things at her. Flinging the Kunai to the side she shrugged inwardly.

"I've got the-" Sakura dropped some wood while jumping backwards as a Kunai narrowedly missed slicing her forehead. The Kunai that Kagome threw now held another Kunai, spinning round in place lodged into a tree harming no one. With wide eyes Sakura looked towards Kagome in awe. Did that Kagome-girl just save her life?

"I can build the fire." Kagome said picking up some of the better pieces of wood that would make the starting of the fire easier.

"Move." Sasuke ordered Kagome once she had finished arranging the wood to her liking.

"Huh?" Kagome asked looking up to see the non-talkative raven haired boy. "You could have just asked nicely." Moving her hands away she sat back down on the log away from the moody boy. Kagome felt something being squished to her chest as she bent down to brush some dirt off of her shoe. Reaching inside of her Kimono, she pulled out the two boxes. Since there was no wrapping paper Kagome opened one of the thin boxes that had been hand carved and pulled out a charm bracelet. It seemed like the bracelet's charms were carved out of Sesshomaru's own teeth. There was a miniature sword in a sheath, a miniature bow, a miniature dagger and a miniature scythe. Running her finger over the tiny scythe she hissed slightly as it sliced her finger. Blood dripped onto the bracelet and it briefly glowed. No one had noticed since Sakura was intently watching Sasuke use his fire ball technique to start the fire. Kagome brought her finger up to her face to examine the wound and was satisfied when she had found that it had already healed up.

"Heeeyyyy…….Kagome! Guess what?" Souta asked as he ran over being careful not to spill the canteens of water.

"What?" Kagome asked trying to sound excited.

Souta pulled out a Kunai and held it out. "This is called a Kunai, ninja's use them! Naruto was teaching me how to throw them properly!"

"BWAhahahahahaHAha, I'm going to become the Hokage one day! So no need to thank me!" Naruto said rubbing the back of his head.

"You," Sakura yelled pointing her shaking, from anger, finger at Naruto. "YOU WERE THE BRAT WHO ALMOST KILLED ME !?" The birds who had been resting in the nearby trees took off towards the sky sensing the impending danger.

"Ara?" Nautro asked backing up quickly as he saw what was about to come. He also wet himself, by spilling the water from the canteens all over the pants onto his orange jumpsuit. "Sa-Sakura, d-d-d-d-don't do anything to-o rash now!"


	4. Market Place

Pages: 6

Story Word Count: 2, 720

* * *

Chapter four- Market Place

* * *

"Hn…the fire… is running out of wood." Sasuke said intervening not wanting the annoying pink haired girl to make a racket. Sakura smiled widely at her Sasuke-kun, fluttering her eye lashes before, she ran off to go find some more wood to hopefully please her Sasuke-kun. 

"Hey Souta can you come here? Sesshomaru wanted me to give this to you." Kagome said while Sakura seemed like she was going to strangle Naruto if Sasuke hadn't intervened. Kagome handed his wooden carved box to him. Her own bracelet twinkling happily on her left wrist not making any noise nor making it feel like there even was a bracelet there.

Unlike Kagome, Souta received a necklace with a miniature sword attached to the bottom of it. However like Kagome's the sword and sheath still seemed to be made out of someone's tooth. Lifting up some of his short, but long enough to get stuck in the clasp hair, he successfully managed to clip the two sides together. "It's so cool!" He exclaimed while observing all the details carved into his gift, before he tucked it away into his shirt so he wouldn't lose it.

"Awe man, I need to get some more water." Naruto grumbled going off again. He had been on the verge of really wetting himself, fearing for his life as Sakura's horrible mood swing took a turn, which didn't seem to be in his favor.

"Hey, hey Naruto wait up!" Souta yelled running to catch up with his new friend.

Sasuke turned his attention to Kagome and looked her over. She... her power level didn't seem any different from a regular villager. He starred openly at her. "How?"

"Sorry, How what?" Kagome asked looking up from trying to keep the fire alive.

"How did you know, that those Kunai were coming?"

"I sensed them."

'She sensed them coming?' "Are you lying?" Sasuke asked clearly not believing her. No one could sense Kunai. Kakashi didn't even sense Kunai. The former ANBU had trained himself to hear them.

"What would I gain by lying to you?" Kagome asked back rapidly losing interest in the conversation.

Going back to the villager theory, nothing extraordinary about her power level, yet she was able to do things that only a trained medic nin and a Jounin (former ANBU) could achieve. It was probably just stupidity and sheer luck. Kakashi broke Sasuke's train of thoughts as he had returned with a skinless and a gutted out deer. Chunks of the carcass was speared with sticks and then stuck into the ground, over the blazing fire. One chunk of meat for everyone, Kakashi had been turning a couple of browning pieces in the fire when Sakura dumped more firewood for the fire, near the fire and sat down next to Kagome with a huff. Naruto and Souta arrived back with the full water canteens just before the deer meat had finished cooking. Once everyone had had their fill they retired to 'bed.' Sakura lent blankets to Kagome and Souta, she had planned to lend them to Sasuke, but he had brought his own.

"Yosh! I get the first watch!" The rest of him teammates agreed. Once Naruto fell asleep it was hard to wake him up without him waking up everyone else.

"I'll do the third." Kakashi said with a curve of his right eye. Usually that's when other ninja's decided to ambush others.

"I'll take the second then." Sakura said before going into the tent yawning and rubbing her eyes.

"Fourth." Sasuke said with a slight nod of his head before leaning against a trunk of a tree to try, get some shut eye and before his shift and also before his thoughts drifted off to a certain brown eyed girl who was constantly puzzling him.

Kagome looked towards Souta who had already fallen asleep, from exhaustion. She closed her eyes and decided that she should try and do the same. The night shifted on slowly creeping by, with nothing of interesting happening.

"Oi, oi Sakura-chan." Naruto whispered trying to be quite. His shift was over.

"Hu-Oh it's time for my shift." Creeping out of her tent she watched as Naruto pulled off the top to his orange jumpsuit and snuggled up into his sleeping bag.

The night continued to pass leaving Sakura to stray with her thoughts…Kagome had saved her life. The Kunai being pinned by another to the tree kept on re-playing in her mind over and over again. Plus the girl could heal her brother just like that. How **that** was even possible, was beyond Sakura's wild imagination. She shook her head, her thoughts shifting over to her Sasuke-kun. Giggling and blushing she thought of all the ways Sasuke could finally accept her love. She had come up with a couple trillion before she got lightly tapped on the shoulder by Kakashi, who was standing now beside her.

"I'm here to relieve you of night duty." Kakashi informed not wanting to know what the heck was going on, in the only female that belonged to his group, head. Even though it had almost been two full years, he vowed that he still never wanted to find out. Taking out his little orange book he flipped though the pages until the dark sky had lightened up to a dark blue-ish grey. He then shook Sasuke awake and went back to 'sleeping' on the other side of the tree trunk.

Kagome woke up about an hour and thirty minutes later and let her eyes adjust to the dark. Wondering where she was for a moment before re-gaining her bearings. Oh yeah, she was in another dimension where ninjas existed………fantastic. Rubbing her face with her right hand she stood up careful not to wake or step on anyone and tried to locate a source of water where she would wash her face in. She saw the two empty canteens and decided she might as well also re-fill them while she was near the river.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Oh Sasuke it's just you, I'm going to find that river that Naruto and Souta used to fill up the water canteens." Kagome said thinking that it might have been a demon, a demon which she would have to purify. Then when she did purify it, she would probably wake the others. Not to mention all the long hours of interrogation, she would have to endure, because she was just trying to save their lives. Do you see now why she didn't like to meddle in people's lives anymore? One thing always led to another and that usually ended up with someone dead! However now that she mentioned it there _was_ something iffy about Sasuke. The only person that she had met so far, that she hadn't found anything iffy about, yet, was Sakura….…but the pink hair was kind of abnormal. She ran her right hand over her face again, 'I really need to splash my face with some water, to wake myself up.'

"Hn." Leaning back against the tree he heard Kagome go. If she was going to run away, she would have taken her brother with her… 'Oh Sasuke it's just you' those words rung in Sasuke's ears. 'What did she mean by 'it's just you….Plus how did she kept that smile ever present smile, on her face all the time? And since when did I even care about anything concerning those bothersome females?'

Dipping her hands into the small river Kagome lazily dragged her finger tips through the water before dipping both her hands into the water. She cupped the flowing cool liquid a couple of times, before bringing it up to splash onto her face and rise out her mouth. The full canteens lay against a nearby rock, splashing her face again. Kagome noticed a bunch of slivery fish swimming against the current. Taking off her shoes and her outer black and white Kimono she laid them both on top of the rock far away from the river. This left Kagome wearing black waterproof tights that ended a little after her knees, with some lace lining the bottom and a black dress like t-shirt that ended around mid thigh while the sleeves ended a little after the armpit. Grabbing a sharp stick Kagome slowly slid into the water and started to jab at the small fish with her weapon of choice.

"This feels so slimy…" Kagome muttered to herself looking up towards the light-ish blue, darkish pink sky to remove some of her hair that had fallen into her eyes, without touching it with her slightly bloody hand. Pulling another spine and the scrapping out the rest of the organs out of another fish, Kagome threw them onto the other side of the river where, some hungry birds had gathered. Grabbing some more sticks while keeping an eye on the greedy crows she washed the sticks and speared the fish onto the sticks and washed them, along with her hands in the river. Then she stuck the sticks into the ground, so she could put her outer Kimono, back over clothes that had dried. Slipping on her shoes and grabbing the six fish and the two water canteens she made her way back to the make shift camp.

The sun now had started to rise, turning the sky a lovely shade of blue. Shoving more wood into the small fire Sasuke moved back to sit against the tree trunk once more. Hearing some rustling he glanced over to Souta who was now sitting up and rubbing his eyes. Looking around and stretching his arms Souta yawned. 'Oh crap! I'm sooooo late for training! Sesshomaru is going to have my head!' Scrambling out of his bed? That wasn't his bed and this wasn't his room… where was he? He did have a strange dream last night though.

"Hey squirt, glad to see you're awake," Kagome said handing him a fish on a stick before putting the water down. "I caught us some fish."

Souta let out a sigh of relief. Sesshomaru wasn't going to kill him for being late for training, which started usually 5:30 Am for Kagome and 7:30Am for him sharp. No exceptions or complaints. "Thanks." Souta moved closer to the fire and stuck the fish into it turning it around a couple of times before it became crispy and slightly brown.

Kagome handed one to Sasuke who just slightly nodded his head in thanks. Going around the tree Kagome nudged the 'sleeping' masked ninja with her foot and gave his the fish. Naruto once he smelt the cooking fish he grabbed one off of Kagome and put it strait into the fire, causing it to catch on fire. When he poured water onto the fish it had been to the point of burning. For once Naruto had been lucky. Walking by, Kagome stabbed one of the two fish outside Sakura's tent. Once Sakura had woken up and everyone had eaten their breakfast they packed up and continued making their way to Konoha village.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, can we stop in the small marketing village place coming up? I heard this town has a lot of fresh herbs and spices." Sakura asked breaking the silence, getting an approving nod from Kakashi.

"We should all go in pairs. Naruto you go with-

'Please not me, please not me, please not me!' Sakura chanted in her head with her eyes shut.

"Me."

'Nooooooooooooooooo- wait Naruto is going with Kakashi! YES!'

"Sakura you go with Sasuke." Kakashi said while reading his book. Sakura was now having a mini seizure on the inside from being so happy. 'I get to go shopping with MY SASUKE-KUN! YIPPPPEEEE! I get Sasuke-kun all to myself!'

"So does this mean I get to go with my sis?" Souta asked tugged on the green vest of the Jounin.

"Oh… whoops I forgot about you guys. Okay change of plan-"

"NOOOOOOOOOOO." Sakura yelled aloud falling to the ground.

"…okay- Naruto you go with Sakura, Kagome you go with Sasuke and Souta you go with me. We'll all meet on the other side of the village once everyone has finished their shopping." Kakashi stated watching the villagers spending ridiculous amounts of cash.

"Alright Naruto you better not get in my way! And don't touch anything in the store!" Sakura said dragging Naurto off.

"Maybe the new volume of Icha Icha Paradise out……" Kakashi said before walking off in another direction.

"Hey wait up Kakashi! See you later Kags!" Souta said before running off to catch up with the perverted teacher.

"Do you want to go anywhere?" Kagome asked Sasuke while she watched her brother disappear into the busy crowd.

Sasuke crossed his pale and slightly muscular arms over his chest, "Hn." The girl had been plaguing his thoughts for awhile…how had she been able to do all those things? As smart as he was, he just couldn't figure out how! Usually there was a logical explanation for everything.

Kagome rolled her eyes maybe she had some money on her or something. Feeling around her Kimono she pulled out a small unfamiliar purple satin drawstring bag. Pulling the strings open and peering inside to find only gold coins. Closing it and putting the bag into one of her many inner pockets of her Kimono, she decided it would probably be smart to get some of this dimension's currency.

"Does this town have a place where you can trade currency?" Kagome questioned the Uchiha.

"Che. The second building to your right." Sasuke said disinterested, now the girl was probably going to find out all the 'hot' shopping spots then drag him all around the village to buy useless things that she didn't need.

"Alright thanks." Kagome said walking up to the creepy old lady who looked at her clothes with interest.

"Greetings this is the Market Village's trading post, were you can trade in your goods for spare change," The lady said slightly leaning out of the window to try and get a better look at the Kimono. "Are you here to trade your Kimono in? Since it's been worn-"

Kagome hated people like, this lady. They always wanted more profit and tried to cheat you of what's rightfully yours. "No. I want to know how much money would one golden coin equal."

"A golden coin?" The lady grunted angrily. "I don't know, we don't do those kinds of trades. A piece of gold! Might as well be asking me to translate hieroglyphs to yo-"

"Ah, sorry excuse me, miss. Grandma you're not supposed to be running the trading post! Urgh. Anyway," Pushing the old lady away a younger more friendly looking man popped his head out. "Regularly one good chunk of gold would equal about … maybe 50,000? If it's in good condition."

Kagome gave the man that popped out a noticeable smile, pulling out a single gold coin from her pouch, she placing it onto the counter. "How much would this be worth then?"

The young man let out a gasp and brought out his small magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers to carefully examining the rare specimen. "Miss- where did, where did you find such rare and in such a good condition coin like this? I would think that these would be worth 65 grand, maybe even more!"

Kagome blinked and held out her hand for the money then. As long as she was given a good amount, she didn't really mind all too much. She had plenty more gold coins which her brother and she could live off of. Sasuke, who had been quietly musing to himself, all while ignoring all the females that were giggling and talking about him to their friends, pulled the golden coin off the counter. Looking at it the coin he flipped it over wondering how she had gotten such a thing. "75,000." He stated holding the coin out to the flimsy looking man who jumped not seeing the Uchiha prodigy who had been standing in the shadows. The offer was quite reasonable…glancing nervously over to the huge vault full of cash sitting in the corner of his small family run shop. The trade's man ran his hand through his rapidly thinning hair. He wondered if he should accept or decline the offer.


	5. Arriving at Konoha

Pages: 5

Story Word Count: 2,035

* * *

Chapter Five- Arriving at Konoha.

* * *

"Alright, I'll get right on it." The man said deciding that, he may never have another chance at getting a gold coin. Scrambling around inside, he shivering as he got a deadly glare from Sasuke. The man opened the vault as quickly as he could and counted out $75,000. Most of the countries had already switched over to bills. They found that the coins were harder and heavier to carry around while traveling. The man laid the wad of bills onto the counter he nervously plucked the coin out of Sasuke's hand and then slide the pile money over to Kagome. 

"Thank you very much," Kagome looking rather wide eyed at the huge seven stacks of paper along with one other thinner stack of bills. Grabbing onto the thinner pile of bills she slipped it into one her inner kimono pockets. Then she wondered where the hell she was going to put the rest of them. It's not like Kagome could carry the money down the streets, in her arms. She would not be able to defend herself if she needed to.

"Gosh, look at that poor guy being with that disgusting girl," A rather jealous brunette said her face lathered with makeup. "Hah! Look at her now! She's hiding behind her money, the ugly Bitch." The girl said looking at Kagome's back. She had wanted a Kimono like that for the upcoming beauty pageant. However her dad couldn't afford to buy her one and instead, he got her the Kimono she had asked him to get her last year.

"I'm sorry would you like to repeat that?" Kagome asked turning around, handing the money to Sasuke so she could properly confront the girl. Misinterpreting what Kagome wanted him to do; he shoved the money into his backpack and went back to standing in the shadows. He wasn't going to stop someone he had met a couple days ago from getting into a fight. He wasn't her babysitter so why should he? Though maybe if he did, he would find out why this girl was so…….different from the rest.

The brown haired girl crossed her arms, "Why would I talk to such a loser like you? Obviously you don't even know what a beauty is, when you see her." She said referring to herself getting all her friends around her giggled in agreement. They had all been trying to get Sasuke's attention when their brunette friend wasn't looking.

"Just because you're insecure about yourself, doesn't mean that I'm not completely content with who I am. I'm not the one who has to abuse other people to boost my own confidence and I don't mean to offend you but, beauty is only skin deep but your type of ugly goes right down to your bones."

"Oh my gosh Alana! Are you just going to let that bitch talk to you like that?" One of her friends asked.

"Hn." Sasuke didn't even know why he was still thinking about that Kagome-girl. Growling to himself he walked off parting the crowd as if he were some disease that they would catch if they touched him.

"My daddy's a ninja you know. He's going come and kill you once he finds out, what you said to his baby girl." Alana said after a few moments of flicking her hair out of her face, she didn't have any good comebacks.

"Oh good, I'll make sure to mail you my name and address then." Kagome said with venom lacing her words. It ticked her off when stupid people, like that Alana, judged you without even knowing you, it had always been one of Kagome's pet peeves, from when she was younger, which had never gone away. She walked through the streets counting from twenty to zero calming down, while ignoring all the stares she was getting. Kagome quickly located Sasuke and caught up to him.

"Is it alright if we find my brother? He probably wants to buy something." He shrugged, he didn't care. She searched for Souta's aura and sensed it close by, turning around she found the book store her brother was in. A red painted sign that said, adult books can be found here, hung on the inside of the dirty window. Upon entering the store she spotted Souta searching the isles and flipping through books. She crept up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. "Ye-Kagome?"

"You can pick out a couple of books if you want. I've got cash." Kagome said reading the back of a couple of books about ninja's and about their villages. Souta backtracked into some of the other isles and picked out a couple and altogether they had five books.

"This book is on sale," The store keeper said pointing to one of the books that Souta picked out. "And that one is half price," pointing to the one that Kagome had picked out, about ninja's. "Your totally comes up to $117.99 and $882.11 is your change. Have a nice day."

Kakashi was standing outside the door waiting with Sasuke. In Kakashi's hand a plastic bag with a small orange book inside, was being held. Kagome thanked the sales person and while exiting the shop with Souta. It was then she noticed that her brother had a backpack on his back. "Souta where did you get that backpack?"

"Huh? Oh Kakashi got it for me off one of the store merchants. He said the old man owed him a favor anyway," Souta answered with a grin. "Why? Do you like it? It's cool, there are loads of pockets and neat-o hiding places to put your stuff."

"Open it up."

"Alright…" Souta replied opening the bag up only to have the five books that had been recently purchased placed into his bag. "Kaggooooomeeee!" Souta whined.

"It's good training for you." Kagome said truthfully, she always use to carry that gigantic yellow backpack around in the feudal era. She even used to _run_ away from demons with the backpack, which felt like she was carrying a baby elephant, on her back. It helped build Kagome's stamina over the long years that the demons tried to kill her.

"Fine, fine." Souta said adjusting the straps and continued walking with the heavy weight attached to his back. He followed Kakashi, Sasuke and Kagome out of the market place where they found Naurto and Sakura already waiting.

"Ano sa, Ano sa! Kakashi-sensei how far away are, we from Konoha?" Naruto asked jumping around excitedly, he couldn't wait to get back and have some Ramen.

"If we were able to travel faster we would cover more ground Naruto, but we have guests…" Kakashi answered, letting Naruto figure it out.

"Oh…. so our guests are slowing us down?!" Naruto yelled stopping to looking at Kakashi.

"You idiot." Sasuke said passing him.

"Don't call me an idiot, you idiot!" Naruto retorted angrily.

"Naruto be quite you idiot!" Sakura hissed punching him on the head.

"We're slowing you guys down? What do you guys do then, run?" Souta asked once everyone had stopped their childish banter about who was an idiot.

"I can show you!" Naruto said with a grin pointing to himself with his thumb. Then being him, he stuck his tongue out at Sasuke and blew him a raspberry. Turning back to Kagome and Souta he grinned again, before he attached his chakra to his feet and walked up a tree, and onto one of its sturdy branches.

'He just walked up a tree….' Souta and Kagome said to themselves while looking at Naruto.

Kagome was sure as hell, that she couldn't walk up the tree. Instead she pushed off of the ground, kicked off another tree and landed gracefully onto the tree branch across from Naruto. Then she decided it would be better if she returned back to the ground. You see Souta on the other hand didn't have enough muscles, or the right training to do such a thing. Kagome landed next Souta on the ground and gave them a smile. "I can do something like that."

"So Kagome you're a ninja as well?" Sakura asked looking rather confused. Normally villagers couldn't be able to jump into trees. Actually they wouldn't even try to jump into to trees fearing for their safety.

"No, I can't say that I am."

"Then how did you just do that?" Sasuke questioned his eyes narrowed. He could do that but it had taken him four weeks to be able to do it without messing up.

"With loads of training." Kagome answered, maybe following this group of noisy ninja's had been a bad idea.

"Why didn't you tell us you could do that before?" Sasuke asked crossing his arms. They could have covered much more ground.

"You never asked." Kagome replied with a shrug of her shoulders.

"YOOOSH! Let's stop wasting time then!" Naruto yelled before taking off in the trees.

Sakura attached her chakra to her feet, then ran up the tree and jumped onto a branch while Kakashi and Sasuke jumped into the tree. "Hey Kagome can I have a Piggyback?" Souta asked looking into the tall green trees with a slight blush on his face because he knew he wouldn't be able to do that. When he arrived in the Feudal Era, before Sesshomaru had started training him, he always used to ask her for Piggyback's. He loved the feeling of the wind blowing past them as they were going faster than the wind itself. Kagome gave her brother a smile and then knelt down for him to climb onto her back. When he did, she jumped into the nearest tree and followed everyone else. While running, jumping and traveling much quicker than before. Kakashi, who was behind her noticed that Kagome, who was carrying Souta, wasn't even attaching her Chakra to her feet while jumping from branch to branch. 'So the only thing that's keeping the girl from falling is her balance?' He wondered studying the female with renewed interest. Surely there would have been news of such a girl going around the village gossip.

They continued traveling until Sakura mentioned that she had bought everyone some rice balls to eat. Once they consumed the rice balls they continued traveling until the sky had darkened and they had reached a campsite, which had a source of water close by. Fish had been caught for dinner and the night duty had been the same as the night before. Kagome had also woken up at the same time too, going off to wash her face and get some breakfast. This time breakfast consisted of freshly picked apples that came right off an apple tree, which was growing right by the small trickling stream. After the group had eaten they packed up again they took off again.

"Yatta! I can see Konoha!" Naruto exclaimed seeing the big gates from a distance while smelling his Ichiraku Ramen. It made his mouth water, it was almost time for a dinner anyways it was around 3:00pm like he said……..almost time for dinner.

"I have to go make a report to the Hokage." Kakashi said once everyone had landed and was standing outside the village gates. Then he poofed, leaving everyone to do what ever they wanted to.

"RAMEN RAMEN RAMEN!!" Naruto said rushing off.

"Hey Sasuke-kun, do you want to hang out with me now that the mission is over?" Sakura asked blushing and giving him a wink.

"I have better things to do." He replied stuffing his hands in his pockets and leaving Souta and Kagome with his pink haired teammate.

"Heh…Anyways would you like to meet some of the other Genin from the other teams? Though Neji is a Jounin now and Shikamaru is still a Chuunin." Sakura asked looking towards the two foreigners to the village.

"Yeah!" Souta exclaimed jumping up. He wanted to meet more ninjas, who where like Naruto, because Naruto was just so cool. Kagome just agreed to make her brother happy, while she glanced at the back of Sasuke. There that had been something…. bugging her about him, there was something giving off a dark aura on his back; it was most likely hurting him too.


	6. Greeting New People

Pages: 8

Story Word Count: 3, 412

* * *

Chapter six- Meeting New People

* * *

"Oh, don't mind Sasuke-kun. He always tries to get stronger so, he can kill his older brother. For massacring the rest of their clan," Sakura off said handedly before entering the village and dodging some small children that ran past giggling about wanting to become ninja's when they were older. 

"There are nine people that you might be able to meet. Shikamaru, Ino and Choji belong to Asuma-sensei they are team 10, Hinata, Shino and Kiba belong to Kurenai-sensei they are team 8, Lee, Ten-ten and Neji-san belong to Gai-sensei. I actually don't remember what number team they are. Everyone else just calls it Team Gai." Sakura said before she started and continued to talk about the village and about Orochimaru, an evil snake guy, which she had met during her Chuunin exams. She also talked out how Sasuke had been sort of like a missing nin for a year, before coming back and realizing that Orochimaru had nothing to offer him. She then went on to explaining how Sasuke gave all of Orochimaru's plans to the Hokage, which proved that he wasn't evil. The plan's that helped Konoha gain the upper hand in the final battle against the snake man. Also going on and on about how dreadful it must have been for Sasuke because he had to live with an ANBU guard watching him every moment for an entire month and then, she went on to talking about the Tsunade-sama who was their Hokage. As you clearly can see Sakura gave into her urge to talk Kagome's and Souta's ear off and have a one sided conversation with them. Strangely feeling completely at ease at telling them things that she would have normally not told people she had met a couple of days ago. However Sakura had quickly bonded with them both and felt like she was obliged to tell them.

"Hey! Hinata, Kiba! This is Kagome and this is Souta, they're new to the village." Sakura said introducing them to each other after spotting Kiba's fuzzy hood on his coat.

"Yo." Kiba greeted with a wave of his hand.

He missed Akamaru, Akamaru wasn't with him due to the fact that he had injured his two font legs on a mission and his partner in crime was currently receiving treatment. He also felt sorry for his K9 friend because he had missed such a lovely girl who smelt absolutely divine.

"Oh H-Hello!" Hinata greeted with a small smile, there weren't a lot of new comers that were allowed to come into the village. They all walked around making polite small talk to one another for a bit, until Hinata's cousin landed next to her.

"Hinata-san, Hirashi-sama would like a word with you, about some matters that concern the main house." A long brown haired guy stated ignoring everyone else. Before he took off, except this time he had Hinata following him.

"Okay let's go, I think I see Shikamaru over there!" Sakura stated looking in the distance.

"Nice meeting you Kiba." Kagome said before leaving with Sakura.

"Who was that dude?" Souta asked, he had looked…..really……girly. Sure Souta was growing out his hair now, but it at least his hair didn't reach his tailbone!

"That was Neji-san, he and Hinata are cousins they belong to the Hyuuga clan. The Uchiha clan and the Hyuuga clan had been rivals at one point. Anyways Shino wasn't with them, so he might be on a mission or he's probably training," Sakura said while leaving Kiba to roaming the streets, by himself. "Hey Shikamaru wait up! This is Kagome and her brother Souta, we saved them when we where completing our mission."

"Tch, that's rather troublesome." Shikamaru replied observing the two new people. He had to admit it. The girl looked like something out of this world. In a good way, she didn't feel very strong while her brother on the other hand might put up a good fight. 'That's troublesome, but the man should always protect the women anyway, that's how it should be.'

"Where's Choji and Ino-pig?" Sakura asked the lazy shadow controller, who was currently staring at the fluffy white puff balls in the sky.

"Ino's working and Choji is having a big family get together today." Shikamaru responded fascinated by the clouds and its patterns.

"Oh okay." Sakura responded before heading off in another direction, to the flower shop.

"Nice meeting you Shikamaru." Kagome said before once again leaving to catch up to Sakura, who had just entered a little store of some sort.

"Hey Ino, this is Souta and Kagome, they are new to the village." Sakura said for the third time.

"Hey forehead girl," Ino replied dully, she had thought a customer had decided to pop in. "So you're showing these guys around since they're new right? Well you won't find Shino, Lee or Ten-Ten, Shino's out training with his father on a mission and Lee and Ten-ten will be back tomorrow." Looking closer at the new comers faces she exclaimed, "Hey Kagome you're rather pretty ya know? If you dressed more like me, you would probably have every man falling to your feet, worshipping the ground you walk on! Except Sasuke-kun of course because he's mine you know?"

"Re-" Souta question was cut off my Sakura who was now had her fists clenched together at her hips. The blonde haired girl was showing too much skin. If she covered up more she would probably be noticed more. She was blonde and she had very pretty eyes, no doubt but your eyes went straight to the bandages wrapped around her stomach area. Souta thought to himself as he watched at the two girl's fighting over the blue haired moody dude. If it's one thing that Sesshomaru taught Souta, it was that. People strive for attention they usually hurt others just to gain what they wanted, not caring if they lose something even more precious to them. Kagome had smartly motioned her brother to plug his ears quickly because the voices of Ino and Sakura were rapidly escalating above each other's.

"When you were my friend before, I told you I liked Sasuke-Kun! Before you ever did!"

"No you didn't big forehead girl! Anyways he's mine and always will be!"

"NO HE CLEARLY BELONGS TO ME INO!"

"I WAS THE ONE WHO FIRST LAID MY EYES ON SASUKE-KUN!"

"NO YOU WEREN'T YOU FILTHY PIG, WELL I AM HIS TEAMMATE!"

"SO WHAT?! YOUR JUST JELOUS BECAUSE SASUKE-KUN LIKES ME MORE THAN YOU."

"WHY WOULD HE LIKE YOU INO PI-"

"Hey Kagome can we go search the village?" Souta asked only loud enough for his sister to hear.

"Sure, I don't think I want to get in between those two girls…" Kagome said slipping out of the store with her brother. Her ears were now ringing. Ino's and Sakura's loud shrill voice's continued to beat down on her ear drums like, little noisy children that had just gotten a drum set..

"Are you Kagome?" A man with a bird mask asked he had been just about to enter the store with his partner with a mask of a dog right beside him.

Kagome looked at both of the two masked men. They had extremely high levels of unknown power. No doubt that they would be a good fight if she ever needed to fight them. "I am, why?"

"So then you're Souta?" The same masked man questioned looking towards the boy who stood there with his hands behind his head lazily searching his masked face.

"Yeah." Souta answer looking into the black holes that had been cut out so the person wearing the mask could see.

"The Hokage would like you to meet both of you." He replied before standing up.

"I'll retrieve Kakashi's other subordinates then." The other man stated to his partner's turned back.

"Follow me please." The man with the bird mask said quickly taking to the rooftops.

Souta jumped onto Kagome's back and Kagome jumped from rooftop to rooftop running after the masked man. Once they had arrived at big wooden doors, the man rapped his knuckles lightly on the door.

"Come in."

"Tsunade-sama I have brought the girl and the boy."

"Good, you are dismissed until further notice," Tsunade said leaning on her right hand while swirling her cup of sake in her left. The man bowed before disappearing. "So Kakashi this is the girl you were talking to me about?"

"Hai." Kakashi confirmed standing near the table, next to the Hokage.

"Kagome is it?" Tsunade asked not waiting for an answer. "Kakashi says you are able to heal wounds and most likely fix bones. I have a dog that is hurt, would you able heal it?" Tsunade didn't want to waste time, so she got straight to the point.

Kagome narrowed her eyes slightly before giving, in her opinion, the big breasted woman, a big fake smile. This was the village ruler? Not giving her power a doubt Kagome knew the woman was very powerful and rather old, she decided to reply back with a question. "What kind of injury does this dog have?"

'Why won't Kagome just heal it?' Souta asked himself watching his sister smiling at the big breasted lady, who was sitting at the desk, in the rounded room.

"The left front leg of the dog is broken while its right front leg is twisted." Tsunade replied after drinking the shot of sake. The healer's were currently overloaded with work. They were tending to ninja's and villagers, who had suddenly become ill, with a rather violent type of the flu, which had been going around attacking everyone last week.

"Where is this dog?" Kagome asked the fake smile had never budged.

"I want to know if you can heal him, before I reveal its location." Tsunade said staring the girl who didn't really seem like anything. Sure she had 'the looks.' However if you were gorgeous and no brains then what good would that do you?

"Why do you even doubt my big sister? Of course she could heal one wimpy puppy, she could even heal the entire w-" Kagome had placed her hand tightly over Souta's mouth. Sesshomaru had clearly not taught him the survival rules.

"She could heal an entire what?" Kakashi asked. Noting that, the girl obviously wanted to hide something from them. Why else would she have covered her brother's mouth?

"Maybe the entire dog with its wounds." Kagome replied while slowly letting go of Souta's mouth.

"Alright. Shizune inform the other's when they arrive. That I'm at the hospital." Tsunade said ignoring the strange behavior between the two siblings. Pulling on her green long over shirt on, she left the Hokage tower with Kakashi, Kagome and Souta and who walked through the hospital straight to the third floor. She slid one of the hospital doors open to reveal. A white-ish dog that had brown ears that looked up and growled. All the unfamiliar scents wafted in from the corridors even though there was one pleasant scent among the rest of them he didn't want to be attacked when he couldn't defend himself. Kagome looked over at the 'dog' and blinked. He was almost as big as the bed itself! Walking over to the bed she stopped once the dog had started growling again.

"Isn't that Kiba's dog? Akamaru?" Kakashi asked Tsunade whole hanging back near the door.

Tsunade didn't reply, instead she just nodded. If the girl couldn't heal the dog, Tsunade would have to heal the dog herself. Frankly she just didn't want to heal the dog because for some reason Akamaru liked to try to bite her hands off.

Kagome reached out her hand to pet Akamaru, but quickly removed her hand, as the dog had angrily tried to snap it off. Giving off a small wave of energy to calm Akamaru down, she inched closer so she could try and see how damaged he actually was. When the growling ceased, Kagome moved until she could sit down and was able run her fingers through the soft fur. Stroking the head of the abnormally large dog she gave a half grin as a pink tongue lolled out of dog's mouth and tried to lick her face. Carefully placing her hands on Akamaru's two front paws, she saw the extent of the damage. It was like Tsunade had said, 'The left front leg of the dog is broken while its right front leg is twisted.' Kagome decided that the smart thing to do was heal the right paw first. Placing her left hand on his right paw her hand started to glow a light, light pink. Akamaru growled slightly at the immediate pain before he calmed down after feeling the girl's finger running though his slightly tangled fur. Something he never allowed strangers he had just met to do.

Tsunade starred intently at the young girl who had now caught her interest. She buzzed, with some unfamiliar foreign energy…however it seemed to be masked by something else. The light pink almost white energy that came out of the girl's hands instead of the greenish glow that came out of her very own hands signified that the girl was definitely not a medic nin of any way shape or form. Moving closer to Kagome, Tsunade watched as she reached for the broken left paw. This would truly prove to Tsunade that if the girl was indeed a medic nin or not. If she was, then she would need to use a healing scroll. Instead there was just a crack that came from the dog's paw and a loud snap of Akamaru's jaws and the whine that followed. 'She's now proved that she isn't a medic nin……so then what can she be?'

Kagome ran her hands a couple times over the sore paws, the right paw could be sore for the rest of the week while the left one would only need about twelve hours, to heal right up. Patting dog's side to hopefully ease some of the pain. She glanced to towards the door before it slid open.

"Tsunade-sama I brought the Uchiha, Naruto and the pink haired girl." The ANUB stated outside the hospital door's room.

"Alright, alright. You're dismissed until further notice." Tsunade said waving her hand and massaging her temple. She felt a huge headache coming on. While there was nothing that was coming to her mind at she search the information in her head on what the girl could be.

"Ah! Tsunade- Baba why did you take me away from my Raaaaaa-men?!" Naruto asked calling Tsunade an old hag as usual.

Tsunade's right eye twitched violently, clenching her fist and her teeth together she tried to calm herself down. Still shaking slightly from her anger she succeeded in not taking upon herself to personally kill Naruto.

"Naruto you idiot! Don't be so rude to Tsunade-sama!" Sakura scolded kicking him in the ankle.

"Could you two step outside for a moment?" Tsunade asked looking towards Kagome and then at Souta, who nodded then shrugged. They left team seven and a sleeping Akamaru with the Hokage in the hospital room.

Leaning on the wall that was just outside the door Souta sighed as soon as the hospital door was slide shut. "Kagome, I'm sor- I'm sorry about before…but you're so powerful, I swear that your even much more powerful then Sesshomaru by now! Why? Why do you keep making everyone believe that you're not?! You worked so hard…so hard, to become strong, and then, you just hide it all! Why?"

"Souta you have to understand. People, who are powerful, can get easily corrupted. They'll start to think, that they have certain rights that only belong to them. Only belong to them, like they're privileged to have those rights. Then they'll threaten others to work for her… or him and try to rule every living thing on earth. Doing anything to obtain more and more and more power," Kagome looked towards the door she could hear that they were discussing something that involved her. "Strong Mikos, even back in the feudal era, were rare. There were a whole bunch of women, who **did** have holy powers, but they either didn't know or they weren't able to harness the amount of power. Once someone finds out about a strong Miko, the Lord's & Ladies and villagers around the village will go to her with the stupidest ideas. They find the Miko, and argue with her asking why she couldn't give them immortality, great riches or something that will stop their appearances from aging. If you tell someone, or someone else tells someone, that you are able to do something or that you're powerful. They have to take your word for it. So many times I've had to let others down, telling them. No I couldn't make money appear, just like that out of thin air. Before I started training with Sesshomaru, they had thought I was so great. Then they'd yell at me 'Why. Why didn't you save my family, or How, How come you didn't know that this was going to happen?' They started to leave me alone once I stayed in Sesshomaru's castle. Spreading rumors on how I was a corrupted Miko. People will start to assume things that are far from the truth, things that no possible human could do."

"Is that what… is that what some of the villagers did to you sis?" Souta asked in awe, he never really heard Kagome talking about her experiences and past in the Feudal Era.

"Some of them."

Souta knew at the back of his mind he had blamed Kagome for not being there, with him, to not save Kun-Loon and Jii-chan, she could have saved them! He knew that she could of. When he was in the well house hiding, he prayed that she would pop out of the well any moment and rescue them and when she didn't he felt so scared and so alone. However being with her for the past couple of months he found out about the well that hadn't been working once the jewel had shattered. Everything happened for a reason though, good or bad. He sometimes found himself wondering if he would have ever would have jumped into the well if he hadn't known someone was going to kill him if they found him. The answer to that was probably no, he had been such a scared kid before staying in the Feudal Era for a couple of weeks. Feeling was it was like to really be scared and knowing how to protect yourself for the very first time.

"Oi Souta, Kagome Tsunade-Baba wants to talk to you inside." Naruto said sliding the door open seeing the two siblings leaning against opposite walls staring out into space.

"Will you guys be staying in the village?" Tsunade asked. She had been questioning everybody about Kagome and Souta. Like if they seemed dangerous, or seemed like a threat to the village, or had any weapons on them. Naruto replied that Souta didn't even know how to use a Kunai and that he had taught him how to use one. While Sakura told Tsunade about Kagome healing Souta's multiple scratches just like that! Sasuke hadn't spotted any real weapons on them, only the hostler and the scroll and smoke bomb pouch that Souta had been carrying around.

Kakashi had already reported in his report. That team seven couldn't find the fifteenth sound nin, instead they had found empty set of clothes belonging to one. There was no trace of the body anywhere either. In his report he included that Kagome didn't even use her chakra to attach her feet when she jumped and ran from tree to tree. Meaning either she was just extremely foolish, she didn't know how to use her chakra, or she was something entirely different from a ninja or a villager. Kakashi strongly doubted the last option though. News about a girl traveling with a younger boy than her would have spread like wildfire to a bush. Tsunade had taken all the information in and nodded making a rather long list of possibilities the girl could be, in her head. While determining that the foreigners would not be a threat to Kohona and that it would be better if she could keep a close eye on that Kagome-girl as well as her brother just in case.


	7. Getting a Place to Stay

Pages: 6

Story Word Count: 3,040

* * *

Chapter Seven- Getting a Place to Stay

* * *

Souta shrugged his shoulders and looked out of the window, clearly not interested. "It's not we actually have a place to go. I mean honestly, we just arrived in this village about forty five minutes ago." 

"Is that so?" Tsunade's questioned ignoring everything else Souta said as her mind was brewing up a plan. "Hey Sakura, do you have any spare bedrooms in your house by chance?"

"No, my auntie's staying over in our house's only spare bedroom. My mother and father are taking care of her she's going to have a baby soon." Sakura replied wondering why Tsunade wanted to know.

"Oh, Naruto how 'bout you?"

"Me?! I live in a small one bedroom apartme-"

"Alright Souta you can stay with Naruto, Kagome you stay with Sasuke," Tsunade said before anyone could protest or even get a meep out of them she slammed open the sliding door, scaring a nurse in the hall way. "THIS IS FINAL. No complaints! Naruto and Sasuke get them familiarized around the village. They are your new assignments. You are dismissed."

Tsunade figured out that if she split the siblings up. Making one living with the Uchiha and the other one live with Naruto, there would be less chance of them escaping before she figured out who they exactly were. By finding their files and learning what village they had come from, their true background, if they had a special bloodline and who their parents were. Tsunade watched as they filed out of the hospital room, she was more worried about the Kagome-girl and if was even more powerful or dangerous, or even both, then she let on. There was just a little something about the girl, which made Tsunade's stomach tighten. She didn't know what it was about the girl, but the fact that it made her uneasy, made Tsunade want to find their files faster and learn about them, but their were thousands of files which held every birth, ninja, death, sickness, legend, myth and many more things that Tsunade herself would have to look through if she was going to find out who Kagome exactly was and what she was.

"Hn." Sasuke said crossing his arms over his chest. He had thought his mind would finally get to take a break from continually trying to figure out the Kagome-girl, but now he had to lend her his spare bedroom in his home. No one but had been living in the house except him ever since……

"So I get to stay with you Narutoooo?" Souta asked breaking Sasuke train of thoughts walking over to the boy in orange, with a giant grin on his face.

"Ergher…n-"

"Think of this as a mission to become the Hokage then Naruto." Tsunade said with a roll of her eyes grabbing Naruto's attention straight away.

"Eh? A mission to become the next Hokage? Yosh! Alright Souta first I'll show you to Ichiraku Ramen stand! They have the best Raman you will ever taste in your entire life, though cup raaaammmmeeennnn is good, Ichiraku is slightly more expensive but it tastes so delicious." Naruto said excitedly pulling Souta straight out of the nearest window by his arm. He ran towards the ramen stand, like an angry speeding bull to a taunting red cape. Naruto hoped that his half eaten Ramen was still there. From before the ANBU guard had come and dragged him away from his precious bowl of warm best tasting noodles ever.

'What?! We've known Sasuke-kun much longer than Kagome, yet she gets to live with him before we do?!' Inner Sakura yelled while Sakura just stood in the hospital room grinding her teeth together with an angry vein popping out of her head. 'I KNEW SHE WAS JUST MORE COMPETITION! Well we just have to show are Sasuke-kun we're so much more better than that she is, even on her best day.'

"Tch. Fine, don't get in my way." Sasuke said briefly before walking out of the Hokage tower with his new 'assignment' following behind him like a broken rag doll. Kagome just didn't have the heart to reply half heartedly to the boy. Who was dragged her around the village to a smaller housing area one that had the letters: U-C-H-I-H-A. With a fan that was red at the top and white on the bottom, all painted onto a flag that flew around happily flapping around freely in the wind.

"Don't ever go in this room, or this, or this one, or this one. The only rooms you are aloud to go in are the guestroom and the bathroom," Sasuke said in monotone pointing towards the doors of each room. While Kagome tried to memorize which one was which, nodded.

"So does Konoha have any training areas?" Kagome asked not really interested in viewing the rest of the entire village. She was just going to forget were everything was anyways, so why even try?

'This _girl _wants to know where the training grounds are. How come she's so different than all the other girls……?' Sasuke asked himself, he Hn'd she was probably just trying to impress him. Though he admitted to himself she did have that strange healing ability and she could jump into trees without running up them….. So what? Sakura had a huge ugly forehead, pink hair and Ino showed all her skin underneath her bandages that she thought it made her look good. He grunted as he walked by a bunch of the village girls and ignored their screams of 'SASUKE-KUN!!!! MARRY ME! WE LOVE YOU, SASSSUUUEKKKKEE-KUN!'

Kagome rolled her eyes. Egotistical men today, reduced to grunting and snorting. What was next? Turning pink with floppy triangular ears, growing a small curly tail and rolling around in the mud? Kagome had to admit Sasuke was indeed sculpted and a very, very handsome individual, but why would you feel attracted to someone you didn't even know? Or going as far as making a fan club for him/her? This was really falling straight onto the doormat on one of Kagome's pet peeves. If the intensity of each the girl's glares could burn tiny holes into Kagome, she would have been reduced to nothing. However it couldn't and it had become plain aggravating because she was so much more intune and sensitive when it came to everything surrounding her.

"This is where team seven trains." Sasuke informed briefly ignoring his fan club that was supposed to be _secretly _following him.

"So this is where Naruto, Sakura and you train." Kagome stated not actually remembering if they were team seven, or team eleven.

"Che. If Kakashi comes at all." It was very true. There had been times where they just trained themselves because Kakashi had forgotten to tell them that he had a mission to go on or a meeting to attend to.

"Forehead girl you were right! That girl must be…some sort of evil demon! Out to get our Sasuke-kun. She hasn't even been here twelve hours, yet. She's probably putting on all the moves on my Sasuke-kun! Maybe he'll just like her for her looks or something." Ino whispered under her breath hiding in a tree next to her ex-best pink haired friend.

"She's not all that pretty, and your Sasuke-kun?! That's such a laugh Ino; he's MY Sasuke-kun!" Sakura whispered back angrily trying to keep quite while looking as definite as she could.

"No he's mine! Why do you guys always think he's yours?! There are other people who are more talented than you guys." A different girl with glasses and a telescope whisper to them, hiding in the same tree.

"Adna, how dare you say that!? Sasuke-kun is mine!"

"No Sas-"

"Shhh! She's talking too him!" Ino and Sakura said shushing all the other Sasuke fan club girls who were hiding in the same tree; most of them were the ones had glared at Kagome who was allowed to follow 'their' Sasuke-kun.

Kagome closed her eyes and tried to count down from one hundred. Lasting until she counted down to 60, as well as trying to ignore all the whispers about her, she just couldn't take it anymore. For the love of Kami! She could **hear **the girls whispering about her as if they were standing right next to her yelling every single thing her ear! "Sasuke can I have one of your Kunai."

"Why?"

"There are about twenty girls, who are hiding in that tree…who are very rather aggravating," Kagome said quietly while walking closer to Sasuke. Sasuke was taken a back, just a tinsy bit. He didn't think that she would be able to sense their chakra levels. She probably didn't though, he concluded to himself. With his 'fan-club' being that loud a person born deaf would be able to hear them miles away. Flipping a Kunai out of his hostler he tossed it to Kagome; who had caught it, and was now spinning it on her index finger. "Thanks."

Walking in the other direction from the tree she let the Kunai 'slip' off her finger and lodged itself right next in between too the two loudest girls. Sakura and Ino. They all immediately shut up and slowly cranked there heads to look at the sharp piece of metal lodged deep into the branch. 'That girl is dangerous!' All of them thought as Kagome then proceeded to walk back in the direction she had come only moments ago.

"Where are you going?" Sasuke asked not really interested at all. If he screwed up this assignment he was told that, he would get his ass kicked right out of Konoha. Actually if he screwed up on anything concerning the Hokage he would get kicked straight out of Konoha. However since Sasuke was the only Uchiha that didn't fully turn evil. He knew that if he did mess up they would probably put him back under being watched by the ANBU 24/7, but…… Sasuke didn't want to test his theory.

"You ask a lot of questions," Kagome responded continuing to walk down the dirt path without a real care. "I'm going to the market to buy some stuff while you train. I'll find my way back to your house, don't worry."

'Why would I worry about someone like her? Why would she think I would worry I'm no-' Sasuke cut himself off, he was getting a little paranoid about Kagome, who was like a locked box, with the answers he wanted, hiding them inside. Running his hand through his hair he deciding he should really stop thinking about the girl, or any girl for that matter and train harder to avenge his clan.

The market place had been rather busy and packed with people when Kagome had walked through it with Sasuke a little earlier. Now it was practically empty. Buying things here and there Kagome spotted her brother and Naruto sitting at a ramen stand, eating ramen. That was good it meant she didn't have to waste some time searching for Souta. Carefully shifting her groceries in her other arm she dug around in the brown bag for a bit. Before she pulled out a tooth brush, a tube of toothpaste and the cash she didn't spend on books or groceries. Then she sat down on one of the empty stools and then tapped her brother's shoulder.

"Ofhg- Griy Krrgomi," Slurping up his noodles he chewed, swallowed then tried again. Knowing that he hadn't made any sense, "Oh hey Kagome."

"Hey Squirt. I bought you a toothbrush and you can have this bottle of toothpaste, don't forget to brush your teeth tonight," Kagome ignored the roll of the eyes she received from her brother. "And you can spend this on whatever you need, just don't go flashing it around okay?" Handing Souta the rest of the money that she hadn't used as well as the tooth brush and the toothpaste. With one hand he pulled out the two books that Kagome had bought and shoved the things she had just given him into his backpack. He nodded then went back to slurping the delicious tasting bowl of noodles that Naruto had told him to get.

"Thanks a bunch." Kagome said taking the books and ruffling her brother's hair. Then she slid around and off the stool deciding she better get back to cook something. Perhaps she would just make something rather simple tonight. She wandered around the village for a bit before finding the Uchiha housing area. The housing area looked pretty cold and dirty and a small broken stand that had used to sell things lay in broken fragments of splinters of wood. Kagome shook her head and opened the door with the spare key Sasuke had given her. She didn't want to dwell on things that weren't of real relevance to her. Kagome went to the guest room first, so she could put the books down and then she went back into the kitchen and placed the fresh groceries in their respectable places.

"There done!" Kagome exclaimed to herself with a clap of her hands. She had found some things sitting in the refrigerator, while putting the groceries away. The food was still good but they would go bad if it wasn't eaten soon. Putting the pan's contents straight onto two ceramic plates, she set the plates down in between the cutlery that she had smartly set out, before she had started cooking. The pot had been placed into the sink and cleaned right after.

"What is this?" Sasuke questioned as he entered his home only to smell food wafting the corridors like it had when his mom had cooked.

"I cooked you dinner. Since you are allowing me to stay at your place it's the least I could do." Kagome responded only sitting down when Sasuke had. The food was eaten in silence, as it usually was for both of them. Sesshomaru didn't allow idle talk at the table and Sasuke didn't have, nor wanted to have anyone to talk to.

"Arigato." He responded after putting away his dish in the empty sink. This mother had always told him that a good meal deserved some praise.

"You're welcome Sasuke." Kagome replied with a smile, putting fairy liquid on a sponge and cleaning the plates giving her some time to think. Why had she been brought here? Would she ever get to see Sesshomaru again? What was Souta doing? Why had she got stuck in the Feudal era? Why had the well allowed her brother to pass through and not her? Why had her powers grown so rapidly? How did the jewel mask its power and burst? Why had it burst? Why had it then been re-absorbed into her skin? Where Jii-chan and Koon-Loon happy? Did they hate her for not being there with them? Did they know that she loved them and that she was sorry that she couldn't be there? There where too many questions that just didn't have any answers. Drying the plates with a dish cloth she placed the dishes back into the cabinet and felt her chest contract with guilt. She knew that Souta had blamed her for Koon-Loon and Jii-chan's death, but how would she have known? The well didn't even work for her in the Feudal era. Even if it did would she have made it in time? She was now lying in on the bed in the guest room, starring at the ceiling in wonder. The books she had trying to read lay forgotten next to her. It was only when she heard a knock, and then she heard the slide of the door opening she sat up in the bed.

"You left your money in my bag," Sasuke said dumping the wads of cash onto the end of her bed. Picking one of the bundles of cash up she gave handed it to Sasuke, who just starred at her. "Hn, I don't want your charity." In reality Sasuke could really use the money. Sure he **had** a lot of money but he couldn't access it until he was eighteen and the money he got from his missions usually went to paying the bills, anything left over was used being saved to buy himself a new Fuuma Shuriken, because his old one had been tainted with Naruto and damaged.

"Take it, it's yours, I would have never known that gold coin was worth $75,000 without your help. I would have just gladly accepted the $65,000." Kagome said a smile upon her face, these days that smile was always there for show. Her real smile had disappeared long ago with her friends and Naraku.

Sasuke took the money and turned around walking out of the room under his breath he whispered a thank you. Then upon entering his room he pulled off his forehead protector and tossed it onto the dresser next to his bed. Flopping down onto the squishy mattress his mind started to wonder, what made _this_ girl so different from all his other annoying fan girls….he groaned and rolled over he had never dwelled on any girl for more than twenty minutes, but Kagome, was like an arduous, intricate, exotic and rare puzzle. 'Not this again.'

Kagome ran her fingers through her hair that was in a bun. She had only purchased one tube of toothpaste…which she had given to her brother. Spotting a tube of tooth paste dangerously laying on the edge of the sink, she gave a small shrug. She didn't think he would mind all that much, she had just given him $10,000. Squirting Sasuke's toothpaste on the end of her tooth brush she had bought she brushed her teeth, rising her mouth out every so often until she was satisfied they were squeaky clean. Splashing water on her face she used the towel that was hung up to pat her face dry. She quickly twirled her hair into a low ponytail and checked her teeth in the mirror once more, although this time she noticed her reflection. Naruto and Ino had both outwardly stated that she, herself, Kagome was pretty, the only girl she saw staring back at her, was one that was plain, boring, full of wisdom, fake, tired, pale, and………………………………………a killer.


	8. Mission?

Pages: 8

Story Word Count: 3,647

* * *

Chapter Eight- Mission?

* * *

Pushing the inviting covers to the side, Kagome dragged herself out of bed and brushed her teeth. Getting rid of the icky stale feeling out of her mouth. Then she hopped into the shower and well, showered. Climbing out of the shower she wrapped the towel, which she had been laying around in the guest room's closet, around her body and softly cursed under her breath. She would have to wear the same thing she had been wearing for the past couple of days, today as well. Well it could have been much worse, she thought while drying off her body. Putting her hair into the same towel she had been using to dry herself off, she changed into the clothes she had changed out of, only moments ago. 

"I'll make a classic breakfast, like Mama always use too for Souta and I." Kagome muttered to herself throwing the towel over the chair that stuck out from underneath the small desk, twisting her hair up into its usual bun. She placed the rest of the money into the bottom drawer of the desk. While on top of the desk, lay the two books, which had been purchased at the Market. While the satin sac of gold, had been placed inside the bedside drawer. Exiting her room she entered the kitchen and set out everything she would need to successfully prepare the meal.

The eggs had finished sizzling until the yolk was soft and would burst when you poked it. That's when Sasuke stumbled into his hallway. He was going to pop a slice of bread like he normally did for his breakfast, when he realized he had finished off the last slice of it….. yes he remembered now. It had been the day before he left for the mission to locate the remaining Sound nins. Grumbling obscenities under his breath he wondered what he was going to eat then. That's when he smelt bacon cooking, but who- oh yeah the girl, he had agreed to let her stay as his house. She wasn't as annoying as he thought she would be. Unlike some of the other Kunoichi he unfortunately knew. Sitting down at the table he stared at his toaster wondering, why did they always have a setting that burned the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat? His attention then snapped to the girl who was currently laying out the bacon strips on some paper towel to absorb some of the oil. For a moment he thought he saw his mother standing there, with a loving smile on her face turning to see if her youngest son was still sitting patiently for the first meal of the day. However his mother had been taller, in his mind and her hair was navy as well as slightly wavy. Like his own, except for the wavy part his hair, was definitely not wavy.

"Huh?"

"I said, Ohayo Sasuke." Kagome replied the guy looked like he had seen a ghost. She placed the dish in front of him and took two cups of orange juice off the counter which slid one over to Sasuke.

"Oh, Ohayo." Sasuke mumbled a good morning back to her, before taking his knife and cutting into the egg as well as the bacon. Glancing at her from the corner of the eye he noted that even so early on in the morning her ever present smile was still, ever present. Kagome cleaned out the dishes as she waited for Sasuke who was taking a very quick shower not wanting to leave her unsupervised. When Sasuke then came out of the bathroom only moments later he told her to follow him, since he didn't want to leave her in his house where she could snoop about. Plus he had to, since the Hokage had ordered him to show his 'assignment' around.

"You guys, Sasuke, Kagome. Tsunade-sama asked me to find you, she wants you to talk to you guys," The fishnet wearing shadow user, Shikamaru called out. "I've already told Naruto and Sakura."

"Che." Sasuke nodded and jumped towards the rooftops and made his way to the Hokage tower.

"Thanks Shikamaru." Kagome said before jumping onto the roof of a nearby house and following the disappearing aura trail that belonged to Sasuke. 'Why would she want to she me again? Hopefully not to question me about what I'm doing here, who I am and my background. Well one can only hope so much, before they lose their hope.'

"And that was everyone." Shikamaru said staring at his favorite objects in the blue sky with a sigh. Though from the corner of his eye his couldn't help but watch the new village girl, Kagome, follow the Uchiha prodigy. 'She's not connecting her Chakra to her feet as she jumps….'

"Alright, is everyone here now?" Tsunade asked looking around after spotting Sasuke and his 'assignment' enter the room. She needed Sasuke for the mission and she couldn't just leave the girl by herself. Where she could escape before Tsunade found out what the girl's background was, so being the all powerful village ruler. Tsunade decided she would make Kagome tag along for the mission where the four others could keep and eye on her. 'Damn why are there so many ninja brats here? This makes the numbers uneven….alright I guess I'll just think of something later.' "Okay listen up! I am not going to repeat myself. Ya hear? Late last night Konoha received a rather urgent notice from the other countries. Village women and girls around your age around this time of year, always disappear without a trace. People only started to notice that these women were missing when one of the feudal lord's daughters heirs, suddenly disappeared sometime around this time, last year. Most of the other Hokages suspect that these girls are still alive, while others think differently since they have been missing for such a long period of time. We have recently found a connection between all the cases of the missing girls."

"Tsunade-Baba what was the connection?! What was it?!" Naruto suddenly yelled interrupting the story that had gotten interesting. Since he interrupted her oh-so rudely he suddenly found himself meeting the ground, though it wasn't his first time, he got a huge lump the back of his head. The floor cracked slightly from the force of the impact, in turn greeting Naruto and feeling the boy's pain.

"Ahem. All of the girls, every single one of them checked into the very same hotel. Which is owned by an extremely rich man, who was born into a rich family. He knows very little about the ninja world and wants nothing to do with them. Villager women are often complaining about being harassed by gangs of unknown ninja's as well as seeing other women being harassed by them also." Tsunade finished leaning back into her chair leaving it open for discussion.

"S-so you think that the man or the gang is taking-taking these women and girls?" Hinata asked he eyes wide open, it just wasn't right.

"Yes. That's exactly what everyone thinks. I've call all of you here because-" Tsunade was stopped by one of the medic nins that came barging in after knocking.

"Sorry Tsunade-sama but I have gotten an urgent request to take Sakura Hanuro to the hospital right away. Her mother, father and her aunt both wanted their daughter and niece to be there. Her aunt's now gone into labor and will be giving very birth shortly." The medic said rushing out with the pink haired girl who apologized before rushing after the medic.

"There was an odd amount of people anyway. I'll be explaining why all of you are here and what you have to do. All of you are going to pose as regular villagers from Konoha. Your measurements will be taken and clothing will be chosen just to suit you and help you blend in. On the morning of the mission you will receive the attire before you depart for the mission. All of you will be given a new last name right now."

Once everyone had received a clipboard and flicked through the contents of it Tsunade began talking once more resting her chin on top of her folded fingers, which were laced together. "Okay the first sheet on your clipboard says things like body type, size, waist line and such, that page won't be filled out by you, but it will be filled out later on. Pens are being passed around now. Naruto Maki, Sasuke Rashi, Hinata Uto and Kagome your last name will be Mader. Now flip to the next sheet. Continuing on with the explanation, you will be spending around one and a half weeks more or less in this hotel. Hopefully you would have been able to find out were these girls were and if they were dead or alive. If you to go anywhere you are to go in pairs. Anywhere and everywhere you go, do I make myself clear? Don't slip up and blow our cover, and Kagome. You should be extra careful, this is classified as a C classed mission. Since you are new to our village. Alright you are dismissed."

Kagome had finished getting measured and re-binded her chest. The truth was that it was hurtful and annoying to have your boobs shaking and bouncing about, while you were training or trying to defend yourself. Sitting on a rooftop and dangling one of her legs over the edge she wondered why she had to go on the mission, they were more than capable. Standing up she took of in the direction of the training area that Sasuke had showed her yesterday. She was slacking off in her training and she felt stiff. Stretching her arms, her legs and her neck Kagome jumped up and started fighting imaginary opponents, which only she had the ability to see. Throwing her black and white Kimono to lay on a rock she kept on fighting these imaginary beasts until her stomach gave out a cry of hunger. She attacked a couple more before giving into the hunger. Whipping her arm across her forehead she re-moved the sweat that had accumulated over the rather long workout session. Picking up her outer kimono she gave into her poor screaming stomach and ventured off to find some to satisfy her for the time being. Munching on rice balls a small stand had been selling. She turned around when she heard her name being called out by the lilac colored eyed girl she recognized from yesterday.

"Kagome! Ka-Kagome, Tsunade-sama wanted me to tell bring you to the Ichiraku Ramen stand, it's about our mission." Hinata said catching up to the black haired girl she had already been introduced to.

"Thanks for telling me Hinata." Kagome said feeling her mouth contort itself into a bigger and even more friendly smile.

"N-no problem! I'll take you to the Ramen stand. Na-Naru-Naruto chose the eating place," Hinata said blushing faintly as she said Naruto's name, stumbling over some words. "He said he would go on the mission if he couldn't eat at Ichiraku Ramen. He likes to eat ramen a lot. I've been learning how to make…how to make it from scratch." 'just for him.' Hinata added in her head walking with her head bowed.

"That's fantastic Hinata."

"It was kind of hard, because the dough was sticky and sometimes the strands of noodles would come out in chunks and pieces….but Naruto always works the hardest, and he believes in everyone. I didn't know why at the time, but a long time ago, when I was younger my dad told me to stay away from Naruto. Since he is the container for the Kyu-" Hinata covered her mouth with both her hands in complete shock. How had she told all of that to someone she had only met yesterday? She hadn't told anybody that she was trying to make Naruto delicious noodles so he wouldn't spend all his mission money on noodles and more importantly! Naruto was going to hate her for spilling out his secret!

Kagome tilted her head, so this Hinata knew about the demon inside Naruto. "I'll let you in on something. I already know that Naruto has a fox demon inside of him." Kagome whispered so softly that only Hinata could hear her utter the words as if they would be shot down, were they stood. If they spoke about it, too loudly.

Hinata inhaled sharply. "So he-it doesn't bother you knowing that?" Maybe that's why Tsunade had talked to them before she had told Hinata to find Kagome. Tsunade had ordered them to right in their reports if Kagome did anything suspicious or dangerous, but why? Kagome didn't have an enormous amount of Chakra and she didn't have the fighting buff air around her that most of the other Kunoichi in the village had. Kagome on the other hand didn't have any of that. She had something else…. Something about her…

"Well why should it? Naruto is still Naruto," Kagome replied truthfully with a fake grin. Slipping her outer Kimono back on as she looked straight towards Hinata. "You know what Hinata? I can tell you right now, that you are a real likable person, you've have a pure heart."

Hinata blushed at the complement, now knowing why she had almost spilled everything to Kagome. There was something about her….that made you trust, confide and feel comforted by, when you were simply around the strange new girl. Overall there was nothing strange about that. There were always just going to be certain people who you associate yourself too more than others. "Err-You're also very easy to like to Kagome."

When Hinata said that Kagome felt like someone had just squeezed her heart. She heard herself thank Hinata and felt her mouth continue smiling. On the inside, however Kagome like a lost child searching for her mother in a mall, surrounded by unfamiliar things. She liked this Hinata girl, she was kind, caring and innocent. Just like she had been when she first traveled to the Feudal Era. That's right….now she didn't want to get attached to anyone, care for anyone else, start any new friendships of the sort. She already had her brother to worry about. Then realization struck Kagome. She was so use to putting on a happy smiling mask all the time and hide behind her old personality. Now on the inside it was a totally different story, she was guarding herself, never wanting to be hurt ever again, not wanting to fall in love someone who would never love you back, not wanting to feel the pain of loosing your friends and your mother and grandfather, who have always been there for you, through the good times and for the bad ones too. So on the inside she so cold so uncaring, like a monster, like an evil demon, almost like-

"Kagome, we're here." Hinata said a bright red splash of red went straight to her cheeks, as Naruto called out her name and waved to her

"Oi, Hinata there you are, we were getting worried about you." Naruto said with a laugh before going back to slurping his noodles.

"Sorry Naruto-kun." Hinata apologized sitting down next to Kagome.

"Alright, now that all of you brats are here, tomorrow you will be departing for your mission 7Am sharp. I don't think I should have to remind you of this, but travel as light as possible and be on alert for suspicious things." Tsunade said giving a glance to Sasuke, Naruto and Hinata. Trying to remind them about keeping a close eye on Kagome without using direct words. Then she got up and left. She didn't want to stick around any longer than she had to.

'That's all she wanted me to hear?' Kagome asked herself, ignoring her brother's presence and three other people's aura, which were only a couple of feet away from the Ramen stand.

"That's my sister Kagome over there. See I told you she's really pretty, you guys didn't believe me! Ha in your faces, I totally showed you!" Souta said pointing out his sister with pride, to his new friends. Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon he had met them yesterday on the way to Naruto's apartment. All of his new friends had convinced him to hid under a square box that had eye holes, which they claimed was their ultimate disguise, as a rock.

"Wow, Souta's sister is really hot! I'm sorry I didn't believe you Souta." Moegi apologized bowing her head.

"….-sniffle- I agree with Moegi." Udon commented whipping his nose.

"Look, over there! Sasuke-kun is here!" Moegi stated getting hearts in her eyes.

"Hohoho…. Does your sister have a boyfriend?" Konohamaru asked rubbing his hands together while staring at Kagome's …. **ass**ets.

"No she doesn't." Kagome answered turning around in her seat while raising an eyebrow at the strangely painted cardboard box.

"See I told you she would know where were here if we hid underneath this 'rock.'" Souta stated sarcastically as he said rock. Actually he had told them that she would sense them no matter what they hid underneath. Running his fingers through his hair he sighed as the others didn't listen, they just flipped their ultimate disguise off.

"Ha, so you were listening in through our im-mmy-mpene-treray-able hiding spot! So you are strong like Souta-chan described you as!" Moegi exclaimed pointing her finger at Kagome who blinked at the strange kids.

"Impenetrable hiding spot!" Udon corrected whipping constantly leaking nose, again.

"I hate to break your bubble, but you guys were hiding underneath a piece of cardboard." Kagome commented giving a questioning look towards her brother who just shrugged.

"Re-group everyone! Everyone re-group! Come on Souta, come over here! We have to make a plan!" Konohamaru yelled huddling with his friends.

"Oh sorry Kagome, I have to go make tea for Neji and my father! They'll almost be finishing up with their training now. Bye!" Hinata said quickly before rushing off to go prepare the tea and biscuits.

"Bye, Hinata see you tomorrow." Kagome said before turning towards her brother who was huddled up with two other boys and a girl talking about 'their plan of attack.'

"Sasuke-kun! Wait- let's go on a date, before you go on this mission" Ino said spotting Sasuke as she was shopping and eavesdropping on there entire conversation.

"No, get out of my way," Sasuke said as Ino kept blocking his path as he tried to go to the training grounds. "Leave me alone." Sasuke said before brushing past the blonde haired girl with his arms crossed and eyes closed. The mark that Orochimaru left never disappeared, even after death and it was burning again.

Kagome narrowed her eyes. She felt the ominous evil presence on the back of Sasuke pulse. Smiling like nothing had happened she looked towards her brother. Who had broken out of the circle and rolled his eyes at the stupid ideas his new friends had. About getting a cow and training it to be a ninja cow so they would impress the village, or something extremely similar to that very thought.

"Souta do you think you'll be alright by your self for a week and a half or so? Naruto will be going on this mission as well so do you think you'll be able to take care of yourself while I'm gone? "

"What? How come you're leaving so soon? We just arrived yesterday! Why do you have to go?" Souta protested then remembering he was strong and he wasn't a little kid anymore he decided to add, "And of course I can take care of myself. I'm not a little baby anymore Kagome."

"My Ma will take care of Souta for you!" Konohamaru said with a wide grin, he wanted to get to know his cool new friend better. As well as get praised from his very hot sister. He quickly whipped the drool that had found its way out of his mouth, off of his face, so he didn't embarrass himself.

"I don't know why, a man or a gang is supposedly taking females and doing something with them." Kagome said with a shrug then turned her attention towards the short brown spiky haired boy, who had green goggles pressed against the top of his head. "Do you really think that your mom will allow Souta to stay with you for a week and a half?"

"Hai! My mom loves taking people in, plus she really liked Souta when he visited my house this morning! She wanted to know why I couldn't hang around people who were more like him."

'Kagome's going somewhere to save people…I can't be selfish.' Souta thought with a sigh it wasn't fair though, Kagome was always in the spot light. She got to do all the cool stuff. She was the one who got all the power, attention and praise. "Alright Kagome, just be careful."

'Human emotions…are so weak.' She looked towards Souta, 'why does is he always worried about me? Putting on her best fake smile, she bent down to Souta's eye level. "Don't worry about me Souta. You keep on training okay? You'll get much better if you keep up the consistency. You'll be alright." Kagome said before Souta embraced her neck tightly burying his nose into his sister's hair, as if he'd never see her again. He only let go once his friends convinced him to let go, and play their favorite game of ultimate ninja with them or something like that. Kagome decided that she should find her way back to Sasuke's house and wash the clothes that she had been wearing for almost a week and spare some time for some good old Miko meditatation.


	9. Finding Things Out

Pages: 5

Story Word Count: 2,348

* * *

Chapter nine- Finding Things Out

* * *

Brushing her hair out of her eyes Kagome stared at the pictures. The crinkles as well as the color showed their true age. After she had just finished meditating and washing the clothes, she decided to lie on the guest bed. So what was she wearing right at that very moment? A lovely fluffy white towel, while her clothes hung outside, being dried by the wind and the sun. Everyone knows that you have to empty your pockets before you wash them, it was common sense! Happy eyes stared back at her; and she was able to see her friends and family once more. Shippo, Buyo, Kirara, Sango, Miroku, brother, mother and grandfather were smiling back at her. Another picture was of her, when she was five; standing near the God tree with her brother and the last one was one of her, and her old school friends and her in a picture booth making peace signs and faces. Closing her eyes shut she tossed the pictures into the beside drawer.

Shifting through the remaining pile that she emptied from her pockets she found the broken locket she had given to InuYasha, so long ago…she chucked that into the drawer as well. Everything else was thrown into the garbage bin. Lying back down on the bed Kagome wondered what had happened to the old her, the one who wore a green school skirt and uniforms to fight demons. Oh yeah, after Shippo died she had stopped wearing them. The last time she had tried to wear them she could see the blood being sucked up, soaked into and splattered onto the white and green fabric. Kagome eyes turned blank as she looked disinterestedly at the plain walls and brought her hands up to view noticing the twinkling of the bracelet she fingered the charms. Wondering why she couldn't have been as strong as she was now, so she could have saved her friends who weren't able to fully enjoy life. Always worried and on guard for Naraku or any other demon who wanted the Shikon. As she fingered the bracelet she noticed a small clip on the tiny bow. She chose to tug at it and was rather surprised when it came off and grew about a hundred times bigger than the small charm.

"It's really made out of Sesshomaru's fang." Kagome exclaimed in awe, running her hand over the smooth surface of the bone. Plucking the string lightly she felt her heart reach out to the oh-so familiar 'twang' of the bow. When she turned the bow around she spotted the very small clip that had stayed the same size. Fiddling with the clasp a bit until she was able to open it, she hooked it back onto the bracelet watching as it immediately shrunk, on contact. She un-clipped the rest of them examining them also before re-clipping it to the braclette, wondering how much pain Sesshomaru had to go through to make such a beautiful yet deadly bracelet. She slipped back into her clothes that she usually wore under her Kimono. They were now completely dry, and then watched from the kitchen window as her Kimono was flapping around outside scaring off the little blue birds. Then when she heard the door open she sliced a couple of pieces off the fresh loaf of bread she had bought yesterday and popped open the lids of the mushrooms and the tomato sauce, while the margarine was being spread onto the bread. "Hey Sasuke, do you like mushrooms?"

"What?" Sasuke called from the hallway making his way to the bathroom to take a shower after training.

"Mushrooms. Do you like them?" Kagome asked again putting a thin layer of margarine on each slice of toast.

"Sure? …I'm going to go take a shower." He grunted faintly feeling his face feel slightly warm up, noticing what lovely curves Kagome hid under her Kimono. Pulling a towel out of the closet he shoved those bothersome thoughts out of his head. Thinking that he might be coming down with a disease, of some sort, as he then proceeded to make his way to the shower.

"Alright." Scooping out a spoon full of mushrooms she spread them all over each toast, some fresh meat that she had also been bought yesterday was laid on top of the mushrooms. Then thin slices of marble cheese were added on top the meat, which was on top of the mushrooms. All of it was then popped into the oven too melt the cheese. When the cheese was done melting, the two pieces of toast for each of them were placed onto two plates.

"What is this?" Sasuke questioned throwing his towel around his neck, poking around at the odd food he had never seen. It smelled alright it actually smelled quite delicious, but that was beside the point. The point was, he had never seen such a, supposedly, edible thing, until today.

"Pizza toast, it's really good."

"Hn." Sasuke took a bite out of the warm gooey bread. It really _did _taste as good as it smelt, and then mere moments later he was staring mournfully at the bottom, of his extremely empty plate.

"Here you can have the rest of mine," Kagome said pushing her last slice of toast over to Sasuke. "I'm not that hungry anyways."

"Thanks." Sasuke said averting his eyes, since he had the perfect view down her shirt. When his very female houseguest leaned over the table top to slide the slice of toast his way.

"No problem at all." Kagome said not even noticing. Her ever present smile, morphing into a bigger one as she got up to she wash the knives, plates and cutting board she used to prepare the food, while Sasuke munched quietly on the toast at the table.

"Why are you always happy all the time?" He asked almost half way done with the toast, breaking the silence as curiosity had gotten the better of him.

"Well…I don't see, why not?" Kagome asked putting the dishes away and leaving the cutting board out to dry. She turned away, showing him her back and hiding the real reason. She wasn't going to tell him the honest truth……because the truth was always more painful and a pain in the ass. Then again Kagome never conversed this much in the past couple of years. Sure there were a bunch of people, demons, witches, warlocks, werewolves and many other abnormal creatures that had the ability to talk. They just always tried to kill you before finding out your true intention. So it was a lot easier to not even put in the effort to try to have a polite conversation- wait the fact was. Kagome much preferred to tell the honest truth. However sometimes it seemed that you just had to lie, for your safety or for the safety of others.

"It's just weird how one person can be so happy, all the time." Sasuke stated, dusting the crumbs off of his plain wooden table with his hand, after he had finished eating the toast.

"Well how can one person like you be so uncaring most of the time? You've got a lot of friends and people who genuinely care about you." Kagome said leaving Sasuke sitting there shocked, speechless, giving him something to ponder about.

The pages kept turning as Kagome continued to read the Village book. Then she wondered if she had been the straw that broke the camels back. She was already walking on thin ice….so did she just add the weight that it needed to cave in, onto it? Was it wrong of her to tell him the truth? About how people did genuinely care for him? She could see even though Naruto fought a lot with him he cared for Sasuke, like a brother, and Kakashi acted like a parental figure to Sasuke. 'Why do I even care about this stuff? I need to keep my nose out of other peoples business. I don't want to get involved in their trivial matters. I've already had too many of my own….he just reminds me of the things I changed about myself so I could avenge my friends…' Kagome thought briefly before she went back to reading the book upon individual villages and about their past and current leaders.

Meanwhile Sasuke had retreated back to his room and stared at his ceiling in deep thought. 'There are…a lot of people… who care for me? Who would care for someone like m- no. No that's right one does, they all just want to be with me because of my looks, or my background. Why would anyone genuinely care for me? There's no one like that, that girl thinks like the rest of them. That everyone would always be there for her, that she would always have friends forever. She'll never understand what I have had gone through she's just like that annoying Sakura. Saying things, to 'make me feel better about myself', pitying me like I'm some sort of child. Well I don't need anyone's pity. I've survived without it when my clan was massacred and I certainly don't need it now not ever. Especially, not from some weak girl brown eyed girl, who thinks she knows what she's doing! Telling me that people actually care, when they don't!' Growling to himself he jumped off of his bed, pulled open his door and bumped into her in the hallway, literally.

"Sorry." Kagome mumbled from the ground. Rubbing one side of her sore butt that had cushioned her fall, when she had fallen. She had finished reading the book about villages and started, on the Introduction pages of the ninja book. Before deciding she should get some shut eye because she had to go on a 'mission' tomorrow. Anyways she was making her way to the bathroom so she could brush her teeth, until Sasuke came out of no where. Actually he jumped out of the door of his room, and knocked her over.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted passed, leaving Kagome on the cold, hard ground. Deciding to look back at her, over his shoulder, not really knowing himself was he was headed. "You're wrong when you say people 'genuinely' care about me."

"No," Kagome didn't know what made her blurt it out. She cursed at herself inwardly as Sasuke glared at her, as if he was daring her to utter another word. "There's always people who care about you, whether you know like it or not or even know about it."

"What do you know? You're just a girl, whose only here because my teammate saved you!" Sasuke all but spat out.

"I could have protected myself. I don't need anyone to help me anymore. Not like I use to," Kagome said muttering the last part mainly to herself. "Naruto, The Hokage, Kakashi, Ino, and Sakura care for you! You don't see it because you don't try to."

"They care for….me? No they don't!" Sasuke said in denial. The last two people on that list, only cared for his looks like everyone else, but Naruto, Tsunade and Kakashi genuinely cared for him? Naruto was just a dork and Tsunade was only keeping a close eye on him since she thought be would betray the village again. However Kakashi really cared about him? He was just his sensei though, so it was his job….It seemed like she was telling the truth but she had only arrived a day ago, so how could she have been able to make the assumptions so quickly?

"Yeah, those people and this whole entire village care about you. It may not seem like they do, they may not even show it on their faces, outwardly, but they do care. They care in their own special way." Kagome said getting up and passing Sasuke, going straight into the bathroom.

'Can she actually be right?' He wondered to himself ignoring the burning sensation of the cursed seal. '…well it doesn't matter to me. What anyone thinks because I'm an avenger.' Not knowing the real reason why he had come out of his room in the first place, he went back into his room.

The next morning Kagome followed her daily morning routine. First was the brushing of her teeth, and the making of the breakfast. Although today she didn't feel like cooking or washing pans or pots for that matter. So cold milk and cereal it was. Munching on the cereal she stared at the packages of clothing and the backpack that she had brought in. Actually greeted and thanked the scared-shitless villager who had brought them. The plastic that encased the clothes looked pretty plain but the clothes inside were a different story. Swirling the cereal in the bowl she scooped some up with the spoon and placed it into her mouth. There were some lovely villager Kimono's, bras, underwear, swimsuit, t-shirt and pants in her goody bag. All which she had shoved into her backpack, there was also the book on ninjas. That Kagome had yet to finish reading that she also shoved into the backpack, which she had been told, it now belonged to her.

Sasuke had now seated himself across her also eating some cereal. He mumbled a good morning back to Kagome who noted, as she washed out her now empty bowl and spoon, that Sasuke seemed to be in a much better mood then he had been last night. While she did just that. Sasuke thoughts continued to wonder having absolutely no idea why this girl had intrigued him so much. Especially her personality and smile. No other girl had stayed on his mind longer than a couple of minutes at the most. Rising out his bowl he left it on the rack to dry and retrieved his package of clothing and shoved it into his backpack, shoving a couple of other items into his old backpack as well.

"Are we leaving now?" Kagome asked, as Sasuke quickly exited his room swiftly shutting, the door to his room behind him.


	10. Hotel Arrival

Pages: 6

Story Word Count: 2, 500

* * *

Chapter Ten- Hotel Arrival

* * *

"Che." Maybe Tsunade was right, she wasn't just another pretty face or as venerable as she seemed. That's why she interested him, which was the only reason why she interested him. So he would just have to keep a close eye on her. They had just passed the Ichiraku Ramen stand when Kagome adjusted the straps on her backpack and breifly glanced back. Noticing that Sasuke now seemed suspicious of her, which was just great. What has she ever done? Kagome just figured she'd have to be more careful around everyone. As well as being more cheerful, happy and smiling more would hopefully rid any suspicion. There was already Tsunade, Kakashi and now Sasuke who were wary of her. That was already three people too many. Why? Because they'd keep an annoying closer eye on her, watching her every single movement. 

"Sasuke-kun! Good morning how did you sleep last night? I bet you were dreaming of a certain long blonde haired aquamarine eyes, what other girl but me has those rare to find attributes?! Oh Sasuke-kun you're so sneaky! But of course I never doubted that you've always liked me more than giant forehead girl!" Ino said wrapping her arms around the disturbed Uchiha's neck. Yesterday when she had eavesdropped that he could be leaving for a mission 7AM, she woke up extra early just so she could bid her Sasuke-kun a farewell. Then later on, she would hunt down and be able to gloat to Sakura. That she had been the girl who was able to see him last, before he departed for his mission. She had planned it all out laughing as she imagined the look that would have contorted itself on Sakura's face

"Release me."

"Oh I know you'll miss me. Too bad Sakura wasn't able to see you off, she doesn't care about you the way I do. Since, you know I'm here and she isn't!"

"Tch, this is so troublesome. Who are we waiting for again?" Shikamaru asked staring at the dark sky which held none of his fluffy white friends. He had been given the job of seeing that everyone departed from Kohana and no one was left behind.

"Uh…we're waiting for Naruto-kun; maybe we should go-look-for-him." Hinata said pushing her two index fingers together like she normally did when she was feeling anxious or nervous.

Just then a flash of orange streaked right past them. "AHHHHHH! DON'T TELL ME I'M LATE! PLEASSSSEEEE DON'T TELL ME I'M LATE! TSUNADE-BABA IS GOINNNNGGG TO KIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLL MMMEEEE! I DON'T WANNA DIE BEFORE I'M ABLE TO BECOME THE GREASTEST HOKAGE ALIVE THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT OF BEING ALIVE, TO BE THE GREEEASTES HOKAAAGE **ALIVE**!!" Naruto yelled running past everyone not even seeing them.

"Naru-Naruto-kun please wait up!" Hinata said in a half yell, before she took off running and jumping in the trees along with Sasuke and Kagome, who had taken off after him as well. They were all chasing after the Kyuubi container, who was running at a remarkable speed even to a well trained ninja. They had almost passed the Market village when they had caught up to Naruto who had to just had to have the courtesy ask:

"Ara? Why were you guys behind me? I thought you would have already arrived by now! Did you come back to get me?"

"You idiot, we had to chase after you. You would have blown our cover Dobe." Sasuke stated with his arms crossed over his chest.

"You guys, where's Kagome?" Hinata asked looking around. There were supposed to be four of them in total on this mission. There were only three people standing around in the branches of the tree.

"Che, how come no one checked if everyone was here before we departed?" Even though she was assigned to him, didn't mean that he was her baby sitter. 'Did she run away when we were all distracted by Naruto?'

"Oh no!" Hinata felt terrible she was too busy chasing Naruto-kun down like the rest of them she had forgotten about her new friend.

"What are you guys looking for?" Kagome asked jumping down from the branch she had been standing on. She had actually gotten the backpack handle stuck on a stubborn branch and she couldn't reach it with her arms. So she had to take it off her back and unravel the branches around the handle before she was able to catch up with the rest of the hyperactive ninja's.

"Ara? There you are Kagome!" Naruto said pointing towards her, "Don't you guys worry the great and amazing UZUMAKI NARUTO has found the missing Kagome; you all can stop worrying now that she has been found!"

"Naruto, you are such a loser." Kagome said jokingly with a smile, doing what she said she'd do. Which was, showing more emotion, which would in turn. Make everyone less suspicious of her and would leave her to lead a normal-uh relatively normal life in the village of Kohana. That was because no one there knew anything about her, except Souta. Hopefully he would know what information he should keep to himself. The group continued bounding through the trees, dodging the odd stay branch that threatened to poke their eye out, if they didn't pay close attention.

"Well I'm the COOLEST loser you'll ever meet!" Naruto replied as they were jumping from branch to branch, before stopping and realizing he had just unintentionally yet intentionally, dissed himself.

"Baka."

"Teme."

"Aho." (Dumb ass)

"TEME!"

"Bonkura." (Dimwit)

"SASUKE-TEME!!"

"Dobe."

"URASAI SASUKE-TEME!!!"

"Uh let's take a break for lunch. I made some Bento boxes f-for everyone. I hope no one minds." Hinata said breaking up the fight, clearly embarrassed as she pulled out the packed boxes which she had made last night. They all quietly enjoyed their meal keeping their guards up for anything or anyone suspicious. Once they had eaten and thanked Hinata for the meal. As quickly as they had stopped to take a lunch break, they were back to bounding in the trees to arrive at their destination swiftly. Except this time they were waiting for one another, keeping a close eye on their group, not wanting to leave anyone behind, not like last time. The ninja's had learned from their minuscule mistake.

"Hey, isn't that the village?" Kagome asked pointing towards, what indeed was a small village that was bustling with very little life. The town itself seemed like a regular town except smaller and there was a taller building that stood out from the rest.

"We should change our clothes now so we can blend straight in." Sasuke stated pulling out one of the elegant but effective, pre-made packages of clothes. The clothes had already been pre-put together and stuffed in a clear plastic bag. This allowed you to see what you were going to wear, without wasting your time, picking and choosing what to wear with what.

Kagome followed the others example and went behind a tree to change. She pulled off her clothes and quickly slipped into the new one's that would allow her to blend in with the rest of the female population who were going to be wandering the streets. Folding up her regular clothes she placed it back into her backpack then adjusted the kimono finding startling similarities between the one she was wearing now and the one her late beloved friend, Sango, always wore over her demon slayer outfit. The Kimono top was exactly the same only the skirt was black, not light green and it didn't go up so high. Instead the skirt rested just below Kagome's belly button. Even though it looked rather constrictive it was surprisingly easy to move around in. Kagome suddenly felt her heart contact in guilt. She could have been there, if she had only been stronger at that time and was able to stop she-

"Ka-Kagome have you finished changing yet?" Hinata asked. She herself had already finished switching her clothes as was standing in the small clearing with Sasuke and Naruto. Who she had to admit they both looked simply dashing. They were wearing the regular brown tops and semi puffy white pants, though Naruto's clothing color was the other way around brown semi-puffy pants and a white top. Neither of them was wearing their Kohana headband. That would have just defeated their purpose of changing their cloths in the first place.

"Hai. Sorry to keep you all waiting." Kagome said stepping out from behind the tree swinging the backpack onto her back. Forcing her smile back into place as Naruto complimented her after complementing Hinata.

"WE'RE HERE!!!" Naruto announced happily jumping around outside of the hotel doors, feeling the urge to state the obvious while grinning obnoxiously.

"Hn, there's not a lot of people." Sasuke said as Kagome lined up behind Naruto who behind was already lined up behind Hinata, who were all in front of him.

"Here over here I can help the next group of four, please come over here." A man at the front desk stated motioning for the group of eight to come his way. "For every room there will be four people in it. There will be some food and water waiting for you in the room. Room service will be free as well as anything you order, as you are here, as guests. You will be staying room 1123 what are your names?"

"I'm Hinata Uto."

"And I'm Naruto Maki!"

"Sasuke Rashi."

"I'm Kagome Mader."

"Here are your card keys, please do not lose them. I hope you will enjoy your stay.Is there anyone next in line?!"

Kagome slid her card key through the slot and waited as the light turned green before pushing the door open. Both Kagome and Hinata walked through the doorway turning on the lights as they went by, as night had quickly taken over. They passed a bathroom and a small closet before they got to see two queen sized beds with green sheets and white pillow masses on each of them. The only reason why Sasuke and Naruto weren't with them at that very moment was simply because; Naruto had challenged Sasuke to see who would run up the flight of hotel stairs the fastest. When Sasuke declined saying that was just a stupid idea. Naruto in turn then said that he won my default. Which made Sasuke ticked off and accept the challenge. Then they both took off running up the stairs leaving Hinata and Kagome standing around, waiting for the elevator.

Kagome fought the urge to roll her eyes at the memory as she opened her backpack and pulled the book about Ninja's. That she had yet to finish, it was half way out of her bag when she heard it. 'What on earth is that noise?' Kagome asked herself before the hotel door was swung open and Sasuke stood there only slightly out of breath.

"Hahaha Teme I told you I'd beat you running up the stairs!" Naruto said standing in the hallway, also panting, with an abnormally large grin on his face.

"You never even made it inside the hotel room dunce."

"Nuh-uh I never agreed to that." Naruto said in a loud sing song voice. Shaking his index finger and inflating his whiskered cheeks in denial.

"Dobe, you ran off right after you said, 'first one who gets into the room wins-" Sasuke said crossing his arms.

"No teme I said that-" Naruto said loudly interrupting Sasuke before she could finish.

"Hey, can you please be quiet out there? My friends and I are trying to get some sleep…. We just came from another village and we are all very exhausted." A fairly regular looking girl wearing coppery rim colored glasses asked, looking at her feet that poked out beneath her pajamas, embarrassed to be confronting such handsome, male strangers.

"Tch, idiot." Sasuke said sharply turning around and walking into the hotel room. Shutting and locking the door. Not caring on who (or what) was stuck, on the other side of the thick slab of metal and wood.

"Oi! Sasuke-teme lemme in you're such a teme! HINATA, OI HINATA KAGGOOOOMEEE Please lemme in!" Naruto yelled banging on the door with his fists angrily. He had beat Sasuke fair and square, running up the sixty seven flights of stairs. Then he had tripped on the carpeting on the way to the room. He must have dropped his card key when he was running because he couldn't locate the useless piece of plastic in any of his pockets. Naruto banged harder on the piece of wood, starting to feel his hands tingle and protest in sharp sparks of pain.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata immediately dropped down her backpack and ran towards the door to unlock it. Before the boy, she had an enormous crush on, broke it down. Hinata felt her face heat up as she examined Naruto's red hands from abusing the poor door. She gently dragged him by the wrists into the bathroom, shoving both his hands under the cold tap water the flowed out of the faucet.

In between hearing the water running and Naruto's whines of pain. Kagome was entertained as she watched Sasuke, who was busily inspecting the room for anything that seemed the least bit suspicious. He closed the large curtains and dropped to his knees so he could look underneath both of the beds. She had stopped watching Sasuke after he had looked underneath the beds. She on the other hand had found the mini refrigerator as well as the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Speaking of dinner, she was feeling rather peckish and guessed the others were feeling exactly the same way.

"What do you guys want to eat for dinner?" Kagome asked checking the clock that sat on the table. The food was ordered by the hotel phone, as well as delivered to their room on a chart by a fairly creepy looking fella. Who looked, and felt a little too suspicious for everyone's taste. Even though the man just grunted and gave them all an extremely creepy smile, which showed his yellow teeth, it still made Sasuke, Naruto and Hinata uneasy. Kagome had been occupying the bathroom, when the food was delivered, because she felt as if her bladder was going to burst. After they all finished checking if there was anything wrong with their meals and finding nothing strange about it. They consumed the food then set the silver food chart, back outside. Then they got ready for bed.

Something that could have been so simple made so frustratingly difficult by the two men, who did not wish to sleep in the same bed as one another.

"IIE! I'm NOT sleeping in the SAME bed as Sasuke!" Naruto protested crossing his arms in clear defiance, stomping his right foot to exaggerate his point. His familiar penguin hat lay limp in his left hand while Naruto had changed from the villager clothing into his regular light blue Pajama's.


	11. Small Change

Pages: 4

Story Word Count: 1,996

* * *

Chapter Eleven- Small Change

* * *

"Well I, for one, don't want to be contaminated with Naruto's lack of ability to comprehend things." Sasuke stated since he too had changed into a more comfortable attire, to sleep in. His outfit consisted changed into grey jogging pants and a dark navy blue t-shirt that was semi loose on him, but still showed off the faint outline of his muscles.

"Yeah? Well I don't wanna be infected with your attitude. That would be the worst!" Naruto said jumping on one of the two vacant beds, childishly blowing a raspberry at Sasuke, spraying the Uchiha with saliva.

"Tch." Sasuke clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth swiftly tossing the phone book that had been lying on the side table, at Naruto's head. Almost immediately Naruto had been knocked out cold. And while all that was taking place Kagome had plopped herself down on the other bed and snuggled into the fluffy comforter after wishing everyone a goodnight.

"Er-Sasuke-san…… which b-bed will you be sleeping in?" Hinata asked looking longingly at the bed Naruto had collapsed in. Which caused Sasuke to refrained from rolling his eyes at the Hyuuga heiress. He then slid underneath the covers bordering the point of falling off of the bed, which Kagome had now appeared to have fallen asleep in.

"Oh-okay…." Hinata whispered turning off the lights before gently laying next to Naruto, who had drool coming out the side of his mouth.

* * *

"I can't believe it's her, Miroku it really is her isn't it? She seems so different from the happy-go-lucky violent girl we once knew." A familiar feminine voice said with a sad laugh.

"A lot of time has gone by, and Lady Kagome just needs some motivation to get up," A familiar masculine voice stated with humor, but was stopped by a loud thwack that occurred when the young woman's fist met the man's skull. "Tisss, you have seriously wounded me, Sango I thought dying together would mean something to you! When I told you I would go to the end of the world just for you because you're the only one for me, I wasn't joking." He said holding one of her hands with both of his own, staring deep into her eyes brown eyes.

"Yes but next time, don't come back!" Sango said a light blush tingeing her face which ruined the effects of the glare she gave to the questionable 'monk'.

"Hush now you two, pulling her through from the living world was no easy feat." A rather enchanting feminine voice stated in slight annoyance of having to endure the rather odd couple.

Kagome groaned, swearing to herself that she could hear voices swimming around in her skull. Eventually opening her eyes, she saw three people standing over her body. "Sango……Miroku……and Midoriko?" Kagome asked slightly tilting her head to the side in utter confusion. "How? Are you real? Or is this just someone's very sick way of trying to get to me?"

"There isn't any time to explain how you got here Kagome," Sango said before grinning. "But I can assure you it really is us. It's so good to see you again, even if we're... not exactly alive anymore. Despite that-"

"What Sango is trying to say is, we are immensely glad to be able to see you once again Lady Kagome, it is a great miracle." Miroku said with a grin as he inched closer to her bottom stopping in his tracks as Sango gave him a suspicious look.

"Where's Shippo?" Kagome asked feeling deep emotions within her stir, seeing her long time companions once again it all seemed too unreal for Kagome's liking.

"Well we-.......we don't know," Sango and Mirkou answered at the same time looking at their feet. "His parents said that they were leading him to the gates of the final destination, after they had finally finished going through his memories of the past for the hundredth time, so he could re-incarnate peacefully. Then something black quickly came out from the ground then disappeared back to were it came from taking Shippo's soul along with it......and since then no one has had a clue to what happened."

Sango looked up, clearly in agony and she felt her heart shatter as she fell to her knees and tightly embraced Kagome, who had this face of indifference in place. "You've changed……"

"I know," Kagome responded quietly before she closed her eyes and swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. "I'm so sorry you guys, I should have done something sooner. I could have saved you two."

Miroku kneeled down next to the two girls. "The past is in the past we should all just let it stay there. Kagome, right now you should be living in the present. We don't want to hold you back by making you think you're the one to blame for our deaths. The reason we died, ultimately was so that you could live and for the past couple of centuries we have been waiting to tell you this so you could have inner peace with yourself by hearing this directly from us, before we finally go through the gates of the final destination."

"I've missed you guys so much," Kagome said truthfully her voice cracking as the mask slipped away revealing emotions and the girl they all knew and loved. "I honestly didn't know what to do after I had avenged everyone's deaths. There was a giant gaping space, I felt even emptier that we couldn't rejoice in the defeat. Then I had to come to terms that Shippo wouldn't run out of hiding, laughing and launch himself at me yelling 'Mama!' No Miroku to stare at his palm in amazement that the black hole was gone. No Sango to tell Miroku that he wasn't dreaming. Only silence as well as the stench of death and poison it was almost just like when-"

"Kagome! That really doesn't matter anymore. We just can't have you going back to acting like Sesshomaru on a regular basis this is how the world should see you. So Stop beating yourself up and live your life!" Sango said so passionately that tears had appeared in her she didn't want Kagome to be miserable because of what happened.

"I wish we could spend more time with you, but the fact remains that Sango and I are dead and it has taken us a good couple of centuries to gather this much energy, but since we are only souls, we must depart back to the gates before we waste away." Miroku said then let out a content sigh and smiled his perverted grin as he was able to feel Kagome's ass for one last time.

"MIROKU!" Sango yelled smacking him on the face, quickly whipping the tears from her eyes. "You just ruined the moment, but we love you Kagome nothing can or will ever change that. Make new friends and be truly happy, in fact we WANT you to," Sango said as they slowly became invisible. "This isn't a goodbye Kagome, just think of it as it as a see you soon, until the next time."

"Alright, guys see you soon." Kagome said swallowing another lump that had formed in her throat, her friends knew that she was terrible with goodbyes.

"I'm immensely glad that they have opened your heart back up, now it will be easier for you to help those around you. Like that boy who is cursed for example," Mirdoriko said before looking at Kagome. "Everything happens for a reason."

Mirdoriko gently grabbed Kagome's pushing something into her left hand, then turned it over and pressed Kagome's wrist to her forehead. A brilliant blinding white light came forth and consumed them both. Kagome instantly felt a strange energy burning from her wrist and enter its way into and spread throughout her entire body.

"You will see …..."

* * *

While Sasuke, Hinata and Naruto stopped to talk to yet another store keeper, trying to gather more information. Kagome admired the pendant that was the same size and color of the Shikon no Tama, attached to a thin dull chain made out of demon bones. It was about a centimeter thick and Midoriko's forehead markings appeared on both sides of the pendant. This was what Midoriko had placed into her hand after giving her a strange explanation.

She quickly shoved the necklace into her pocket as the others emerged from the store. "Any luck?"

"He said that we should go back to the hotel soon.... there is a gang that roams the streets after six he told us we should go back to our own village." Hinata replied a little worried.

"YOSH! That means we're going to wait until six, then we can stop those jerks from terrorizing the village people and see if they're the ones who are taking those girls!" Naruto almost yelled slamming his fist into his hand sheer determination flashing through his eyes.

"Shut up dobe, you are going to blow our cover," Sasuke stated as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Hyuuga, you should take the girl back to the hotel."

"I have a name you know. It's Kagh-o-may." Kagome replied almost forcing herself to sound rather irked, a long time ago she would have been fuming. Now that was just another distant memory. Just then she felt a small droplet of water fall on her cheek.

"Oi, it's raining!" Naruto said stating the obvious as the sky darkened and the little droplets of rain started to fall to the earth.

"Hyuuga take her back." Sasuke ordered. The girl was probably only going to get in the way and would complain loudly about her hair, how she was getting all wet and how her clothes were ruined and such.

Hinata nodded as she tugged on Kagome's sleeve. "Let-let's go, they'll be alright by themselves." She said as she leading Kagome in the other direction.

* * *

Kagome sighed as she came out of the bathroom, she and Hinata had managed to get into the hotel before it started to really downpour but none the less they had both gotten wet.

"It's your turn." She said thanking the purple eyed girl who had insisted that Kagome shower first.

"Oh-okay." Hinata said with a smile picking up her belongings she had gathered to use in the bathroom.

As soon as the bathroom door closed Kagome pulled out the necklace again as she sat on the bed, pillows propped up behind her. Opening the clasp she pushed her hair out of the way and allowed it to fall onto her shirt, once the two sides were joined together. She took a moment to admire it once more, she knew she had seen this exact necklace somewhere, she was sure of it. Rolling the necklace around in her fingers spared a glance to her wrist and noticed the same symbol on the necklace Midoriko had placed onto her wrist. Sighing she didn't know what made her tightly squeeze the two sides together, but she did.

When her eyes opened again Kagome saw Midoriko leaning against a rock panting, she dodged the tail of the mighty dragon demon. She watched as Midoriko pressed her bloody wrist to the marking on her forehead and using that hand she sent the dull almost faded Miko energy to that hand and pushed off the wall and sunk her hand into the core of the demon. The dragon thrashed around violently making the weakened Midoriko swing and made it able to sink its teeth into her body. Blood dribbled out the sides of her mouth slowly lifting her free bloody arm she pressed it to her forehead then sent the Miko energy to her hand and stuck it into herself and using the last bit of her energy she pressed the two souls together and blinding bright light erupted and a tiny pink glass ball fell to the uneven stone ground.


	12. Who Am I?

Pages: 4

Story Word Count: 2, 305

Chapter Twelve- Where Am I?

* * *

"Well I, for one, don't want to be contaminated with Naruto's sheer stupidness." Sasuke stated. He too had changed into a more comfortable attire, to sleep in. His outfit consisted of grey jogging pants and a dark navy blue t-shirt that was semi loose on him, but still showed off the faint outline of his muscles.

"Yeah? Well I don't wanna be infected with your attitude!" Naruto said throwing his hands up into the air jumping on one of the two vacant beds, childishly blowing a raspberry at Sasuke. Naruto then proceeded to pull and squish his own face, putting two fingers up his own noise and grunting at Sasuke. As Naruto continued to make faces at Sasuke, grinning madly as he did so, knowing that he was annoying the Uchiha to a new extreme.

"Tch." Sasuke clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth swiftly tossing the hard covered Bible that had been lying on the side table, at Naruto's head. Almost immediately Naruto had been knocked out cold and he was dead to the world, snoring while drool came out the side of his mouth. Hinata came out the bathroom and inched around the corner wearing a dark purple nightgown that went down pass her calves.

The other bed accommodated, sinking into itself as Kagome had plopped herself down on the other bed and snuggled into the fluffy comforter after wishing everyone a goodnight. She had allowed the perfect opportunity for Hinata to sleep in the same bed as Naruto. On the other hand that would mean Sasuke would have to sleep in the same bed as her. Frankly she didn't care as long as she was able to get some shut eye and not wake up in the morning to find herself dead.

"Er-Sasuke-san…… which bed will you be sleeping in?" Hinata asked poking her two fingers together again. The original plan was that Hinata and Kagome would sleep in the same bed and the other one would be occupied by Sasuke and Naruto. Sasuke refrained from rolling his eyes at the Hyuuga heiress and slid underneath the covers bordering the point of falling off of the bed, which Kagome had now appeared to have fallen asleep in.

"Oh-okay…." Hinata whispered turning off the lights before gently laying next to Naruto, whom had collected puddle of drool outside his mouth. Mutter about this, that and about his delicious ramen and her face glowed bright red in the dark as she could have sworn she heard him utter her name.

Kagome blinked, looking around in a slight haze. Her dream of meditation had morphed into one where there was a small boy who was crying in a darkest corner of the room. The boy was hunched over on the wooden panel floor. There was a body-no. There were two chalk body outlines that were drawn onto the floor. One of the people had been lying on top of the other. The aura and scent of death floated aimlessly in the room. Dried blood splatters stained the once beautiful floor, and the young boy continued to sob into his own arms, which were wrapped around his knees. 'Where am I?' She asked herself turning around seeing sliding panel doors surrounding her.

"Itachi….nii-san-WHY!? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO KILL THEM!" The young boy yelled, lifting his head up letting out a gargle of a scream. Before he broke down in uncontrollable sobs once more, his whole entire body shaking.

'Is that kid…..Sasuke?'

Kagome found her feet moving towards the boy until she stood right in front of him. Wearing what she had worn to sleep, a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Her body now seemed to be moving on it's own accord, as she found her left hand reaching out and lightly touching the boy on the arm and slightly pulling away when the younger Sasuke looked up at her. One of his eyes was half onyx half black and yellow, while the other one was fully black with a yellow pupil. Tears however leaked out booth of the eyes as he looked up at Kagome. Before he furiously wiped them away, jumping up to defend himself from the foreign person.

"Who-who are you!?!" He managed to choke out.

"I'm Kagome, what's wrong?" The question 'what's wrong' is a whole lot better than 'are you alright/okay?' I mean of course they aren't okay! Otherwise they wouldn't be crying in the first place.

She watched as the younger Sasuke choked up again and fall onto his knees while clutching his head. She felt her heart reach out to the boy who looked about seven. Three years younger than Souta had been when Mrs. Higurashi and Jii-chan were slaughtered. 'What's going on?' Kagome asked feeling an abnormal buildup of demonic energy that was coming from Sasuke who had just collapsed. Turning him around she lightly traced around the cursed seal, watching as the surrounding ring which belonged to Kakashi disappear, and when it had, the three commas started to emit black thick foul smelling smoke. She tore off the bottom half of her t-shirt then bit her thumb. Swiftly smearing her blood onto the cloth; as she did this Kagome felt that she was no longer in full control of her very own body; her body seemed to have a mind of its own. The spell that she was currently writing meant absolutely nothing to Kagome. However she held the cloth with bloody words written onto it until a huge burst of light and a gust of air momentarily blinded her.

Re-gaining her loss of breath and the control of her own body. Kagome found herself expelled out of the dream and back in the quite hotel room, and onto the hard floor. She stumbled into the bathroom and sat on the lid of the toilet trying to make sense of what just occured. 'That couldn't have been a dream, it was too real, the energy, the scents…..so why did I do the things I did? I can hear Sesshomaru's voice now. 'What sort of priestess are you? Some people deserve to live in the dark and in pain while plotting revenge. What's the point of only prolonging their much desired deaths?' Mmhm, I remember now, that was the day after I finally had been powerful enough and found a spell to reconstruct a new arm for Sesshomaru. I had used up too much energy….so I had blacked out. Three and a half days after I had woken up, he yapped my ear of then proceeded to attack me with his razor sharp claws, while I was only armed with my knowledge. Later on after intense dedication and months of training, he declared that he thought I had enough knowledge, skill and right sort of powers to become the world's greatest assassin to man and demon alike. Coming strait from the mouth of Sesshomaru, that was a real compliment, of course Sesshomaru, being Sesshomaru he had to ruin it by staying that unless I didn't learn how to see the world as it truly was, make it the end and back again of his courtyard in a snap of fingers, control my powers and gain upper body strength I would only end up being my very own demise, which is, oh so very true.'

The cool crystal liquid was cupped in her left hand before it was splashed onto Kagome's face to bring herself back to the present and to wake her up. When Kagome looked up in the mirror she noticed that the bottom half of the white t-shirt she was wearing had been ripped off and in her right hand laid the dirty torn strip of cloth. She crumpled the cloth up in disbelief tossing it into the porcelain toilet. She stared at her scar, thinking perhaps if the jewel had never came out of her body she could had never become the person she was today… but…would it have been better to know what she knew? Or would it have been better to continue being the naive schoolgirl that thought that the worse thing in the world was bad hair days, a broken nail, math quizzes, tests and exams? No, the answer was definitely no, what happened, happened for what ever reason. 'So this means I have to get rid of that curse? That curse had such a powerful and tainted perspective it has to be removed. The world… this world or any world and family certainly doesn't need another Naraku running around. However, maybe just maybe I should be slightly worried at the 'thing' that bestowed the curse.' She pulled down the handle of the swirling vortex of doom before she squirted toothpaste onto the toothbrush, which she may add, all good hotels provided for their visitors. Then she rinsed out her mouth before creeping back into the room of sleeping ninja's to get a change of clothes. Since she didn't feel like wearing the shirt that exposed her permanent scar.

When she came back out of the bathroom after taking a nice hot shower the clock read 6: 35 AM. She would have gone back into the bathroom so the others could get so more shut eye when she saw Sasuke thrashing around under the covers his face covered in sweat and contorted in pain. 'I wonder how long he has been cursed. Miroku had a curse that was passed down from generation to generation until someone killed the perpetrator that had bestowed the curse onto them. Sasuke's however….is … a different curse. From what I can tell, it signifies itself as a forced mark of mating, most likely without the sexual intercourse. Demons who become mates of one another receive a soul binding connection, they gain power from the opposite party and become a stronger force to recon with, if the individuals both had the exact same powers to start off with and then they bind their souls together, they just may be able to over come the aging process altogether. Though forced mating usually occurs when the person who is doing the biting, forces their own bit of soul and power into the person without their consent, leaving a mark on their skin. Almost always the curse can be removed, broken, lifted, purified or expelled straight out of the body. Depending on the amount of time the curse has been present following through their blood. More than ten years then their blood will become accustomed to the intruding power and if you take it away and they die.' Wringing out a cold face cloth, which Kagome had folded into a neat rectangle, she placed it onto Sauske's forehead that had become awfully warm.

"Kagome-chan what's wrong with Sasuke?" Naruto whispered as he climbed out of the bed after waking up to see his new companion staring at the guy whom he thought of as a brother, even though he'd never admit it out loud. Naruto rubbed his head as he waiting for an answer; he had a pounding headache, but for some reason though, he just couldn't remember why, as he rubbed his forehead in slight pain, Kagome faintly smiled at him.

"I think he just has a fever." Kagome replied just as quietly staring straight into lovely ocean Blue Ocean like eyes. She didn't like to lie, as a matter of fact Kagome wasn't lying, she was telling the truth, but not the whole truth.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Naruto wondered out loud, feeling strangely at ease, hanging onto every word Kagome uttered. Somehow Naruto felt extremely calm yet something (or someone) inside of him was extremely worried and cautious around the girl he known around almost for a week.

"Once he gets rid of what's making him ill. I'm sure he'll be just fine." Kagome said referring to the curse. Not that Naruto knew what had transpired. Naruto just nodded, picking out a new packaging of clothing to change into, occupying the bathroom. A couple moments later after Naruto had woken up, Hinata, missing the warmth, woke up as well. She too asked about Sasuke, in which Kagome replied with the same answers she had given Naruto. She had ordered breakfast for everyone and wheeled the chart in once a much more pleasant looking man had brought it to them. Sasuke's meal was set aside until later, if he woke up. Once everyone who was able to eat ate, the chart was rolled back outside to be collected.

"Do you think that you'll be alright by yourself?" Hinata asked Kagome as she stood by the hotel door.

"Yep! You should search the village like Tsunade said so, since we have to be in pairs I'll just watch over Sasuke while Naruto and you fight the bad guys." Kagome said with a smile on her face as she flipped the cloth on Sasuke's head over to the cooler side.

"Yosh! Hinata let's go find the bad guys, so I can prove to Sasuke. That I'm so much better than he is!" Naruto said tugging Hinata out of the door and running down the hall.

The lock was locked and the chain was hooked into the door before Kagome walked back over to Sasuke. Kagome sat down on the edge of the bed and sighed. Luckily, or unluckily whichever way you choose to perceive. The curse that Sasuke had was one that took about six full years to finally reach his heart, to taint it pure black. Making him act, think and become a version of the weirdo that gave it to him. Suddenly a strong wave of drowsiness hit Kagome she was able to fight it off for about three minutes, before she nodded off to la-la land. Hearing someone screaming made her eyes snap open eyes.


End file.
